the Kokoro clan
by petitefeeme
Summary: Kara is chosen instead of Sakura to be in team 7. Itachi and Shisui are konoha nins. How the story'll change with those new settings?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

A traditional alarm clock rang, its hands indicating 7 o'clock.

Beside it, out of a crumpled mass of covers, a delicate hand shot out to shut the device off.

The covers moved to the end of the bed and a girl about 12 years old sat, her dark brown hairs tousled and her face still sleepy.

She rubbed her dark green eyes to get the sleep off and stretched before standing, walking to her little bathroom to get ready.

After getting dressed into her usual light blue tee-shirt and grey shorts, she tied her hairs into the usual braid and began preparing breakfast.

She left the stove just a moment to get out of her tiny apartment and knock on her neighbour's door.

"Naruto-kun!" she called "It's time to wake up!"

She waited a moment but heard nothing. So she got out her own set of keys and opened the door, tracing a bee line to her friend's bedroom, careful to not trip over the hundreds of things scattered on the ground.

She opened slowly the door of his bedroom in case the blond haired boy was still asleep, but to her surprise there was no trace of him.

"Naruto-kun!" she called again, thinking that perhaps he was in the bathroom or the toilets, but as nobody answered her (the 12 years old boy had a sharp hearing), she was forced to admit that nobody was in there.

'Where could he be?' she asked herself while re-closing the door of her friend's apartment.

She worried a bit, knowing that his disappearance meant no good, but after a few seconds decided that she couldn't do anything about it and would have to eat her breakfast and go to

school alone.

And that she did. When she entered her classroom however, she was surprised to not see Iruka-sensei, although Naruto's absence didn't perturb her in the slightest.

She spotted Kiba and went to sit next to him.

"Hi Kiba, Akamaru."

"Hey Kara!" exclaimed the brown haired boy while his puppy yipped before jumping into her waiting arms.

"My, my, eager aren't we?" giggled Kara while scratching his belly.

He yipped again, his little tail wagging eagerly.

"Where is Iruka sensei?" she asked, looking at the clock of the class "He's really late."

Kiba shrugged, signifying by that that he had no idea before turning toward Shino Aburame to engage a conversation (basically they were arguing over who was the best pet). Kara sighed discreetly before getting out her book describing the academic jutsus. Since Iruka-sensei wasn't here and Kiba busy, beginning revising for tomorrow now wouldn't be a waste of time (even more so that academic jutsu weren't her cup of tea).

Kara wished silently Naruto luck, smiling at him when he passed. Apparently the blue eyed boy had smeared the hokkages' faces on the rock of pride with paints. Now he had to wash the paints off.

She knew that Naruto played pranks to get some attention, but wasn't this a bit too much?

She also knew that he wanted to become a Hokkage one day. Was this a way to say that he would be the best one? But at the same time, if he wanted to become one, he had to respect the job.

The girl shooked her head to get rid of those confused thoughts and took her bag before heading out of the academy, her mind set on the revision evening ahead.

She didn't bother going back to her apartment, wanting to work out the physical part first.

The only training grounds where the academic students were allowed were the first, second and third ones, the both indoors. The first one was for target practise, the second for jutsu practise and the third for taijutsu practise.

Kara first began her target practise, throwing kunai after kunai, farther and farther away from the target, from time to time throwing two with the same hand, and even with a blindfold just to test her limits.

She also tried to throw two kunais with the same hand in different direction a bit, but seeing she wasn't a master yet and that it wasn't in the test, she stopped soon, not wanting to tire herself before training with the academic jutsus.

In the second training ground, a machine was set up to throw balls to kunais, passing by senbons and stones. Kara set the pace she wanted and began dodging the balls using the kamawari jutsu. At first the pace was slow, but it rapidly increased to one per second and the girl kept dodging until she used one third of her chakra, which took half an hour.

Very satisfied with the time (she trained on her stamina, chakra control and chakra reserves for a very long time now), she passed to the bushin jutsu and finished with the henge jutsu.

Tired and with no chakra left, she rushed to her apartment, hoping when she passed Naruto's door that he was also revising.

There she took a quick shower and prepared her dinner before sitting on the low table of the living room with her dinner and revisioning sheets on Konoha history, the shinobi world in general and shinobis' codes and rules among other informations.

When she felt her vision get blurry, she stopped and made herself a verbena tea before changing in her pyjamas, hoping that the stress wouldn't get the best of her this night.

Kara got out of the academy, a big smile on her face.

The writing part of the exam was a tough part for her, but apparently her work had paid off and she got a high score, only bested by Haruno Sakura.

She also did very well on the physical part even with her non affinity with the academic jutsu, getting in third position after Uchiha Sasuke and Hinata Hyuuga.

"Look." I heard one woman say "This is the famous boy."

She looked in the direction they were looking and saw Naruto, sitting on a swing, alone and with no headband adorned on his forehead.

Her heart clenched seeing his lonely and sad expression and she was about to walk to him when she heard another woman answer the first.

"Serve him right!" she sneered "Could you imagine what would happen if he really became ninja?"

A cold, freezing even, anger filled Kara and she turned to level them with the blackest glare she could give (something her mother always said she took from the ninja part of her family).

Thirty second later the two women were almost running away, their children trailing behind them.

Kara smirked at her victory and turned to see that Naruto had disappeared.

She debated on whether search for him or not, but in the end decided he needed some alone time and went to do some shopping.

For her graduation Kara decided to reward herself with a new outfit, something that will say: ninja, instead of little girl. She also had to rent her kimono for the sakura festival which was a week away.

She soon entered a ninja shop and began looking for an outfit. But there were so many different combinations that she was rapidly lost.

She was debating if just staying with her old outfit was that bad when she heard a familiar voice call her name.

The 12 years old girl turned and smiled, recognizing a face she didn't see in a long time: Inuzuka Hana.

When she befriended Kiba (she had to admit, mainly because of Akamaru), the little boy insisted that she met his family.

The one thing that was clear when you looked at Kiba and his mother was that Kiba was really his mother's son.

Apart from the slightly feminine look on Tsume's face and her feminine attributes, she and her son were physically the same. Even in the personality, they were both brash and liked to talk really loudly.

Hana didn't really look like her mother or her brother. Her hairs were of the same colour, but Hana's were smooth, long and tied up in a ponytail. Her eyes were actually eyes, not slits like her mother and brother, though they were still black like them. She was calm and gentle most of the time, but deadly and accurate while she was angered (while her mother and brother yelled insanities and rushed in the fight).

Kara very quickly took great interest in her jobs (mostly because she loved animals) and Hana gladly helped her when the girl began to be interested in the healing activities.

She taught her the basics of healing with her chakra and lent her books on healing herbs' properties (for animals and for humans).

"Hana-chan!" exclaimed Kara, giving the older girl a quick hug, smiling wildly "How are you doing? It's been a while."

"Isn't it?" smiled back the Inuzuka "I heard from Kiba you graduated. Congratulation."

"Thanks!" Kara smiled "Are you shopping?"

"Hai." Answered the older girl "I was shopping for a new kimono when I saw you and decided to say hello."

"Do you want to shop with me?" Kara asked "It's a bit boring to do it alone. More so that I can't choose."

Hana smiled and for the rest of the hour she helped the girl choose a high collared dark blue Chinese top with dark green embroidered wolves and apricot flowers. More than its looks, the tissue was chakra reinforced against little weapons like needles or little shurikens.

With that Kara bought dark green tight pants stopping at her knees with slits to permit more free movements.

With the clothes the girl bought a leather belt with a kunai pouch and other compartments for various other things. Her new look was expensive but worth it and know Kara was a bit more prepared for what was awaiting her.

After renting her kimono, she and Hana went into a little café for a well deserved pause.

"Thank you." Smiled Kara, eating her flan "Without you I would be still there, trying to decide what to buy."

"Your welcome!" answered Hana "It provided me a nice break from my work. So? How is your training going?"

"Well." Began Kara "I'm trying to learn new healing techniques because I swear the older he gets, the worse Naruto's injuries are. The only problem is that I lack a bit in the chakra control recquired and I don't have access to other method of training than water walking or tree climbing. Apart from that I'm pretty good."

"Hm." Though Hana "The best chakra training for me are snow or ice walking, but unless you know some hyoton jutsus, you only can get that in winter."

She seemed to think about it and snapped her fingers.

"Ah, yes! I remember now an old exercise I used to do when I was a new jounin. All you need to do is narrow and widen the point you put your chakra while walking on water. All you need to do is get in the water slowly and go up again only using your chakra."

Kara though about it and approved the idea, but the moment she was about to speak again, Hana plunged her head in her custard sauce coated chocolate smooth.

"What's going on?" Kara half asked, half laughed at her ridiculous posture.

She peaked up at her before going even lower.

"He's here!" she hissed.

"Who?" the brown haired girl asked, not understanding.

I soon got my answer when the door of the café opened and Shisui Uchiha entered.

"Hana-chan!" he yelled, waving wildly and coming to us with the biggest smile Kara ever saw (only competiting with Naruto's).

Hana shuddered and if possible huddled up even more.

Unfortunately it wasn't enough and the boy slid beside her and in front of Kara.

"Long time no see pretty." He said in an assured tone "Have you though about my proposition?"

"No." said frigidly Hana, looking away and slapping the arm coming around her shoulders.

"Ow, come on!" whined Shisui.

She said nothing and moved away. Shisui pouted and turned away to take interest in Kara.

"And who might you be princess?" he smiled at her.

"Eto… Kara Tashio." The girl blinked, a bit confused about the whole thing.

"Kawai!" he exclaimed before ruffling her hairs and concentrating on Hana again.

"Come on Hana-chan!" he whined "The festival will be so boring without you!"

"Go ask some hens of your barnyard." She replied icily before getting up, leaving some bills on the table "Sorry Kara-chan but I have some things to do. I will surely see you for the festival. Bye!"

Kara waved to her as she almost ran out of the café.

She continued eating her flan while observing carefully Shisui who didn't seem to want to leave anytime soon.

He seemed thoughtful for a long moment before turning to her with a big smile.

"Hey princess." He asked "You seem pretty close to Hana-chan, ne?"

"Well, yes, a bit." She answered neutrally "I met Hana-chan when I was eight years old and now she's like a big sister slash best friend to me."

"So you know her well." Said Shisui, more like an affirmation than a question.

Kara only nodded slowly and he smiled even wider (if that was possible).

"If you know her well, then you're gonna help me."

Kara blinked and asked, making sure to keep her voice neutral:

"Help you in what exactly?"

"I want a date with her." He explained "But incomprehensibly she isn't affected by my irresistible charms."

Kara sweat dropped at that comment but made no remarks.

"So." Continued the guy "You're going to help me get a date from her."

Kara blinked and answered uneasily:

"Err, you know, I'm not a fairy. I will not make your problems disappear with a shake of magic wand."

"Please!" he exclaimed with his expression so pitiful that she couldn't resist.

She interiorly cursed her never ending altruism side before sighing:

"All right, I'll help you. But I can't guarantee anything."

She and Shisui stayed in the café for two whole hours, she progressively warming up to Shisui.

She gave him advises on dating and soon the conversation diverted. She listened patiently to the guy whining about his sadistic captain in his ANBU team and laughed, making him pout.

"You're so mean Kara chan!" he whined, making her giggling more.

"I'm sorry." She apologized, a hand over her mouth to stop her laugh "It's just funny to hear a powerful ANBU like you being bullied by your captain."

"You find me powerful?" asked Shisui, his pout becoming a giant smile "Thank you princess!"

Soon he had to go meet his team to train and ruffled Kara's hair again before running out (apparently he was late).

Kara giggled a bit more before leaving too. On her way back she bought ramen for Naruto, not forgetting about him and hoping that food would soothe him a bit.

She soon entered her apartment and put away her purchases before heating up the ramen.

She was watching them heating up when she heard a frantic knocking at her door, coupled with Naruto's voice calling her name.

She opened her door to see her best friend's tattered clothes, dirt covering the boy's body with some scratches here and there.

"Kamis Naruto!" Kara exclaimed "What happened?"

"I'll tell you later." Said urgently the boy "But you must come with me, Iruka-sensei is hurt!"

Kara looked at Naruto's eyes, seeing the fear and worry in them, understanding immediately the situation. So she nodded to Naruto and rushed in her apartment again, stopping the fire under the ramens and taking her first aid kit.

"Let's go." She said, closing the door behind her before following Naruto back to his living room where Iruka was.

The man was lying on the couch, a sheet of sweat coating his tensed face.

Kara put her hands on his body and began examining him, a green glow surrounding them.

She frowned at what she discovered. Apparently the man was poisoned, but all the kunais' cuts weren't showing any signs of poisoning, so where?

She noticed there was blood on the couch, so she asked Naruto to help her turning him around.

What she saw worried her even more. The cut was not too deep fortunately, but its borders were of a sickly green colour and there was even dark purple appearing, showing an advanced stage of poisoning.

For the first time since her parents died, Kara didn't know what to do. Sure she knew a lot of poisons and their remedies, but she couldn't identify the poison in Iruka sensei's system, having too less informations and she couldn't close the wound in fear that this act would sped up the poisoning.

"Naruto." She decided, rummaging in her kit to retrieve a general potion that would slow down the poison's spread "We have to take him to the hospital."

The blue eyed boy went from worrying to panicking full power after what she said, but Kara calmed him enough for him to help her drag Iruka sensei's body to Konoha hospital.

They stayed in the waiting room for a whole hour, Naruto walking back and forth like a bundle of nerves and Kara shaking her head and trying to calm him down.

Finally a doctor came to inform them that Iruka was out of danger and that they could visit him briefly.

Naruto's smile could have rivalled with the sun and the moment after he was five meters away already, rushing to Iruka.

Kara smiled and chuckled, knowing that Naruto had forgotten to ask for their sensei's room number. She turned to ask the doctor but was beaten to it by the woman who asked her a question:

"Excuse me little one, are you the one that gave the man a purge potion?"

"Yes. Did I do something wrong?" Kara asked, worried.

"No." smiled the woman "In fact you helped him greatly. Because of you he will be able to get out of the hospital in two days without suffering the after-effects of poisoning, just a bit of diarrhoea and nausea."

Kara sighed, relieved, and the woman continued:

"I am impressed you knew what to do. How much do you know about healing?"

A bit ashamed, Kara told the woman what happened.

"I personally think you did very well for your age. I'm impressed." She replied "Tell me, do you want to learn more about medical techniques and healing in general?"

"Well, yes, of course." Replied Kara "But it's difficult alone."

"Then meet me tomorrow at 8 o'clock in the hospital lobby." Said the woman.

Kara froze, looking at her with surprise.

"You…" she said, incapable of saying more.

"You sure are showing a good potential and I'm not going to let it go to waste. What's your name little one?"

"Kara Tashio!" said happily the brown haired girl "And you miss?"

"Please, call me Rin." The woman smiled "And your sensei's room's number is 324."

"Thank you so much Rin-sensei! See you tomorrow then!" the little girl yelled, running to find her probably lost friend and then to Iruka sensei's room.

She was running, looking around, when she stopped dead in her tracks, remembering something.

'Wait a minute.' She though "was that a headband on Naruto's head!"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter two

**Petitefeeme: Hey! It's me! I'm back after long years of absences with a new writing style and a finished story! I will post one chapter each week. Probably the week end Friday evening or Saturday. For the first chapter, in my eagerness to post it I forgot the disclaimer and I apologise for that.**

**Kara: And I'm Kara Tashio! The OC created by petitefeeme for her story. We wanted to thank you for all the ones who read the first chapter. We also wanted to apologise because the author here used lines made of ::o0o0o:: to separate the different parts of the text each times she jumped from one scene to another. Unfortunately seemed to refuse it. We apologize for the readers who were thrown off when they suddenly read a totally different thing from what they were reading before.**

**Petitefeeme: This is why for my next chapters I will be writing something like ::thelinetheline:: to inform the reader they're going to pass from one scene to another. Perhaps with that the site will accept it (I still don't know why it refused my earlier lines made of o's).**

**Kara: We also wanted to warn the readers that this story will be based on Naruto the anime and that the author will jump abruptly from one moment to another when she will think writing the whole scenario/moment will be a waste of time (because it will be the same thing as in the anime).**

**Petitefeeme: This is why to read this the reader has to know what happen in Naruto (just the first part, not the shippuden part). If not the reader might get lost. I also apologize if I made any grammatical errors or other things like that. I haven't any beta and English isn't my first language.**

**Kara: We want to thank Haruka-lin-sama for her really encouraging review (and don't worry about your grammar mistakes, we understand). It's really hard for an author to post a chapter without knowing if the readers will like it or not. It's a really stressing situation. We hope that you'll like this second chapter and that we will receive new reviews from you.**

**Petitefeeme: I don't own the anime Naruto, only my OCs. Enjoy this chapter! ^_^ **

Kara was standing in front of one big tombstone with her newly bought clothes on and a bouquet of wormwood in her arms.

The girl, slowly, like in a ritual, removed the dried zinnias flowers in the vases on the side of the tombstones before putting the new ones in, arranging them a bit before kneeling.

The brushed her fingers on the names engraved in the marble's plate, tracing lightly the carved letters.

'This is my first step in the ninja path.' She though 'One day I'll be as strong as you dad, I promise.'

She wanted to stay longer, but she was already late, so she got up and ran to school.

::::

When Kara opened the door, preparing herself for a speech from Iruka-sensei about her lateness, she noticed several things.

First, and a relief, Iruka wasn't here yet. Second, a mass of girl in the other end of the class was slowly dispersing, revealing a beaten up Naruto.

Kara gasped and rushed to him, helping him sit on a chair.

"Naruto-kun, are you alright?" She asked, worried, already infusing healing chakra in her hands.

"Ah, ah! Don't worry Kara-chan!" laughed Naruto, scratching his head and stopping her "I'm fine."

She pouted, seeing all his injuries, but let it slide and went to sit with Kiba.

"What happened?" She asked to the boy, petting Akamaru.

"Well basically Naruto and Sasuke kissed and Naruto got beaten up by Sasuke's fangirls."

Kara sighed, stupid fangirls. She looked at Sasuke and it was true that he was slightly green and disgusted, which was a rare treat, seeing an Uchiha have an emotion other than boredom or/and anger.

She then waited with Kiba until Iruka came in and began his speech to congratulate the students and make them understand the responsibility brought upon them by becoming genins.

Finally he finished his long and boring speech and began to announce the squads.

Kara waited him to call my name, hoping to end up with someone she at least knew like Kiba or Naruto.

"Now squad seven." Began Iruka "Naruto Uzumaki, Kara Tashio…"

She was relieved to be at least with Naruto…

"…And Sasuke Uchiha."

…But anxious to be with Sasuke. He probably though that two teamates would slow him down and be a useless weight.

Kara turned to look at him and his bored/annoyed expression confirmed her earlier though. To add to that, Kara was sure that the boys would continuously taunt and fight each other.

The girl sighed, noticing she was doing that a lot today and listened to the other team to see where Kiba would end up with.

"Squad eight." Continued Iruka "Hinata Hyuuga, Kiba Inuzuka and Shino Aburame."

"Screw it I'm not in your team." Said dejectedly Kiba.

"I'm sure we will still see each other. Hinata is a nice girl and I don't know Shino that much, but try to make the best of it, okay?"

Kiba 'huffed' and put his head on his arms, stating with that that their conversation was over.

Iruka finished calling teams and he was going to continue when Naruto shot up and whined:

"Iruka sensei, I don't see why I should be with Sasuke!"

Kara knew what Iruka would say and listened half heartedly to his answer, then to Sasuke and Naruto's quarrel, the first of several one, she was sure.

"I will present you to your jonin sensei later." Continued Iruka "You can go now."

The students got out and Kiba said goodbye to Kara, wanting to eat with his team. She encouraged him and let him go before searching for her own team.

She walked, and walked, and walked, to finally frown in disappointment and frustration. Damn males! Always disappearing when you needed them.

She was going to sit to eat her lunch when she heard Kiba call her name.

She turned to see the boy with his team and hesitated. She didn't want to disturb their bonding time, but when she saw Hinata smile shyly and Kiba waving at her more energetically, she walked to them.

"Hi Kiba-kun, Hinata-chan, Aburame-san." She said politely "I hope I'm not interrupting anything?"

"Don't worry." Surprisingly replied Shino (he wasn't someone who spoke a lot) "And, please, call me Shino."

She smiled, a bit unsure how to answer, and sat between him and Kiba, Hinata in front of her.

The lunch was friendly, Kiba making most of the conversation and Kara answering sometimes. The girl even saw Hinata lose her shy composure. Shino made some comment too, but most of the time was just listening.

The boys proposed to go buy some dangos at a nearby shop and the girls gave them money.

While they were gone, Kara was enjoying the sun's warm caress on her face when she heard Hinata's shy voice.

"A-Ano K-Kara-s-san." She asked "I w-wish y-you g-good l-luck w-with y-your t-team."

Kara noticed her blush and smiled.

"Arigato Hinata-chan." She replied "You are lucky. Shino-san seems posed and pleasant. Kiba is a bit brash but don't worry he's a good guy."

"U-Uchih-ha s-san a-and N-aruto-k-san s-seem lik-like g-good g-guys t-too." Replied gently Hinata.

Kara could have smiled even more if she could. It was so obvious. The poor Hinata wasn't the best at concealing and everyone could have noticed her blush and that she almost added a –kun to Naruto's name.

Actually Hinata was a very discreet girl and almost no-one noticed her crush on the blonde boy unless it was someone close to her. Once you knew it was so obvious!

Unfortunately Naruto was the most thick-headed person that Kara ever met and was pretty much oblivious.

Kara felt the need to help the poor madly blushing girl, but even at 12 years old she knew that meddling in other's love life could be complicated, not to mention dangerous.

But nobody said that she couldn't give them a push in the right direction.

"How about we go together at the sakura festival?" the brown haired girl proposed.

Hinata looked up, surprised.

"R-Really K-Kara-ch-chan?" the girl asked in disbelief.

Always bundled up between her domineering father, her better than her little sister and her prodigy of a cousin, Hinata was an extremely introverted girl. She couldn't help but envy Kara Tashio for what she was.

She was all her father wanted her to be: strong, gracious, not being afraid to speak for herself and standing her ground against the majority of Konoha's population to be friend with Naruto-kun.

But in the same time she couldn't even beginning to dislike the dark green eyed girl. She was so kind to everyone, even herself. She never said she was weak like her family implied every time. No, the girl simply said that she had her own speed.

Hinata still didn't understand what the girl implied, but her words gave her some hope and made her smile.

"Of course, it would be fun to have a more feminine friend with me this time." Replied Kara, interrupting the pale eyed girl's thoughts "I'm always going with Naruto and even if he's full of good intentions, we always end up for hours in the ramen stand."

Hinata joined Kara's giggle with her own, relaxed by the light bell sound.

"I'll h-have to ask." She said, and Kara agreed.

This is the time the boy joined them with the dangos and the lunch was finished quickly in a friendly companionship.

Due to the dangos they were a bit late and were a bit scolded by Iruka.

They sat hurriedly after, heads lowered, and waited for their respective new senseis to arrive.

::::

"He's late!" grumbled loudly Naruto, looking in the corridor.

"Try to be patient I'm sure he's coming soon." Kara said without really thinking it, she herself being irritated by his lateness. And at the first day!

But if Naruto became restless she couldn't answer what would happen.

"I can't!" whined Naruto "We're the last ones! I want to begin my training! All the other groups already left and Iruka isn't even here anymore !"

"Try to be patient." The brown haired girl repeated, stressing each word "You know a ninja has to know patience."

"But he's late by one hour!" groaned Naruto before reaching for a chair and putting it in front of the door.

"Naruto?" Kara asked by reflex, already knowing what he was up to.

No good of course, probably a prank.

And the girl was right as she saw him sticking a chalk eraser in the slightly opened door, balancing on the chair.

"Naruto." she scolded.

"It's our sensei's fault, he's late." Simply replied Naruto before jumping off the chair.

"You're being childish." she sighed. She knew a jounin would never fall for that.

"Our sensei is a superior ninja." Said Sasuke for the first time he was here "Do you think he will fall for that?"

It was a rhetorical question but Naruto only grinned and Kara sighed at his stubbornness.

Suddenly the three of them saw a hand appear to open the door and instinctively stopped breathing a second, wondering despite of what they said and knew if he indeed would fall for it.

The answer came to me as the door opened and the chalk eraser fell on the guys head before falling on the floor.

There was a moment of complete silence in where kara wondered if he fell for it on purpose or if he really was oblivious.

The silence was broken by Naruto who began laughing.

"Ha ha ha!" he yelled "He fell for it."

The guy had extremely spiky greyish white hairs defying gravity and one single black eye, the other and the lower half of his face covered by a black mask.

He said, nothing, picking the eraser, looking at it for a second before putting it down and taking a pensive pause.

"On first impression." He said slowly "You are loosers."

Even Sasuke this time had a tensed face at that. As for Kara, she only blinked and tilted her head to the side, wondering why he would say this.

He told the team to meet him on the academy roof and disappeared, using the shunshin no jutsu. Kara wanted to master that technique but didn't build enough rapidity yet.

Instead she used the stairs, like the boys who engaged into a stupid race and soon enough they were all sitting on the roof, the children sitting on a stair and our sensei standing before them, leaning on the railing.

"Okay first we will introduce ourselves." He said in a monotone voice.

"But what would you want to know?" asked Naruto

"What do you like, dislike, hobbies, dreams for the future, these type of things." He replied, not really looking like he cared.

"Could we begin with you sensei?" asked Naruto "So we would know how to do."

"Well, my name is Kakashi Hatake. What I like and dislike doesn't concern you. Dreams for the future… I don't have any. And as for my hobbies they are diverse and varied."

"All we learned was his name." grumbled Naruto and Kara approved him silently. How could he think she will give him her trust if he didn't trust her in return? This was not how the girl worked and she predicted difficulties in the future.

"Your turn." He said before gesturing to Naruto "You there."

"Me?" said enthousiastly Naruto, moving up a bit his headband "Well, my name's Naruto Uzumaki. I love ramens and Ichiraku. I hate waiting for the ramens to cook and my hobby is to taste and compare different sort of ramens. My dream for the future is to be Hokkage so that the village will recognise and respect me."

Kara saw something pass in Kakashi's eye but she couldn't say what it was so she let it pass.

"Okay, you." He said, gesturing now to her.

"Me?" she said, trying to get around revealing to much of information about herself quickly "Well."

While she was at ease speaking with people like Hinata or Kiba, she downright hated doing the same for strangers, people she never talked to and felt intimidated.

"Well my name is Kara Tashio." She finally said "I like… the colour blue and I don't like… I don't really now what I really dislike. As for my dream for the future well…live a happy life?"

She stopped, hoping to not be labelled fool or stupid, her cheeks gaining a light rosy colour.

"Okay, now you." Said shortly Kakashi to Sasuke.

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha." Began the boy "What I like and dislike, not really important. I don't have any particular hobby. As for my project, I want and will surpass my brother and will become the strongest shinobi of my clan."

There was a silence after his speech.

'This is the longest phrase I heard him say.' Kara though 'And he look so sinister when he talks about his brother.'

"Well" finally said Kakashi "You all have interesting personality."

'Is he gibing us?' Kara though, dumbfounded.

"Tomorrow we will have our first mission." He added.

"Ah!" exclaimed Naruto "And what is it?"

"Survival training." Simply said Kakashi.

"Yeah!" yelled happily Naruto.

'Survival training?' Kara though 'What for? We had quantities of them at the academy.'

"But this one is special." Warned Kakashi.

"How is it special Kakashi sensei?" asked Naruto.

Kakashi said nothing, only laughing after he heard Naruto's question.

"What is so funny Kakashi sensei?" asked Naruto, irritated.

"I'm just imagining your faces when I'll tell you what it is about." He chuckled.

"Off the 27 graduates, only 9 will become guenins." Explained Kakashi "The 18 others will return to the academy. So you have only one in three chances to succeed."

Kara gave a though to Kiba, Hinata and Shino and wished them well before concentrating on Kakashi again.

"It sucks!" yelled Naruto "We worked hard to reach that stage!"

"This is it." Said Kakashi with a final tone "I decide if yes or not you can become guenins. Meet me at 5 o'clock tomorrow and don't forget your equipment."

Even Sasuke looked tense.

'That's it;' Kara though 'I'm really nervous now. I will never fall asleep this evening.'

She was asking herself if this guy liked playing with their nerves (which was probably a good guess) when he said bye.

"Oh and." He added "I suggest you don't eat breakfast. You'll puke."

With that said he was gone and Sasuke was the first to go.

"I'll go." Finally said Naruto "Let's go Kara-chan!"

The girl nodded and began following the boy, probably to Ichiraku ramen, thinking hard on the way.

This Kakashi was sure a mysterious individual, but what ninja tells you everything on their first meeting?

**Kara (sobbing): I'm in a team with a brooding emo, a weird scary teacher and Naruto!**

**Sasuke (brooding): Hn.**

**Naruto: Kakashi is soooooo weird! I don't want him to be our teachers! He's sooo laaaaame! He can't even dodge a chalk eraser! I'm the future Hokage dammit!**

**Kakashi only sigh and continue to read his book.**

**Petitefeeme: Okaaay! Please read and review! **


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter three

**Petitefeeme: Here is the third chapter! ^_^ **

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything but my OCs **

**Kara: Enjoy! **

The next day wasn't a peace of cake for poor Kara.

First she had to actually wake up at three o'clock to prepare herself and in the same time preparing breakfast.

Then she had to wake Naruto. While the boy had a sharp hearing, he was totally lazy in bed, moreover at four o'clock.

Frankly, at three in the morning, Kara had totally forgotten about her sensei's advice and was on autopilot. As for Naruto, he could never refuse a good meal, so they both ate before joining Sasuke at the meeting point.

By sheer politeness, Kara greeted Sasuke and wasn't surprised when he didn't reply. Upon seeing this Naruto snorted at him before ignoring him.

After half an hour the girl sat on the ground with Naruto, got out her I-pod and listened to some music, falling asleep until Kakashi appeared.

"Yo." He said shortly and Kara stretched a bit while Naruto yelled to him.

She didn't listen to them, getting up and dusting herself a bit before putting off her I-pod and putting it back into her bag.

She paid attention when he pushed an alarm clock on.

"It will ring at 12 o'clock."

He picked up two bells and showed them.

"The goal consists to grab these bells. If you fail, no lunch. I will tie you to these posts and eat before you."

'So this is why he said to not eat breakfast.' Though Kara, looking at Sasuke who was trying to keep his stomachs from growling. She felt a wave of compassion but focused quickly back on the task at hand.

She looked at the bell and something hit her, there were only two of them and they were three.

The curiosity being stronger than her shyness for strangers, she asked:

"Sensei? There are two bells and we are three. Why?"

"Good question." Smiled Kakashi "There's only two so that I'm sure that at least one of you will eat no lunch. Plus this one will get back to the academy."

Naruto laughed and said: "You're not even capable of dodging a chalk eraser sensei. We could hurt you!"

Kakashi insulted him, pushing a sensitive point saying he was dead last, but Kara's mind was away from the quarrel, the two bells she was seeing where bothering her. The girl had a foreboding sensation about them but couldn't decipher what it was exactly.

"Okay." Said Kakashi "When I say go…"

She was readjusting my bag on her bag when Naruto charged, an angry scowl on his face.

It happened so fast she didn't see it coming. One second Naruto was charging and the second after Kakashi had immobilized him, his own kunai pointed at his neck.

"I didn't said go yet." Said Kakashi

He released him and added:

"Oh so now you take me seriously. I think this will be interesting."

He looked at them before giving the signal to begin.

Kara leaped to a tree and hide in his branches. She repressed her chakra but was septic. Kakashi was a jounin and she a guenin. There was a good probability that he could scent her chakra even if it was hidden.

She couldn't see or feel where Sasuke was (he apparently was really the rookie of their year), but she could perfectly see Naruto standing in front of Kakashi, arms crossed in front of his chest.

"The time has come!" he yelled "Fight me Kakashi-sensei."

'Naruto.' She though exasperated and in the same time impressed by his move. No one could do the same thing that's for sure. Naruto was unique.

'Fortunately.' Her last though was before she concentrated in the fight.

Naruto charged but stopped abruptly when Kakashi began searching something in his pouch. Kara was waiting for a weapon but instead he got out a…book (probably a hentai one, looking at the cover)?

'What the…' She though bewildered 'He is really not taking us seriously?'

She sighed, a bit demoralised but kept on watching.

Of course Kakashi implied he was weak again so Naruto charged without thinking. So in the logical event of thing, Kakashi dodged all of his attack with a rapidity that impressed the brown haired girl.

'I really have a lot of work to do if I want one day to be at this level.' She though briefly.

Kakashi got behind Naruto and made a seal.

"Naruto, behind you!" She yelled to him on instinct before realising what she had done and swiftly changing position.

But when she stopped she saw that her intervention was of no use because she saw Naruto plunge in the river.

Kakashi began reading again and Kara began thinking intensely while keeping an eye on him.

'This is totally unreal.' she though, a bit irritated 'We can't beat him, he's a jounin. I even doubt that we could together…'

She let that though macerate a bit and a terrible one came: 'What if he is trying to divide us by only having two bells when what we have to do is to work together?'

This seemed unbelievable, but it was a logical response. Alone one couldn't hope to win against Kakashi, but together, knowing the fact that he was surely underestimating them, they perhaps had a chance (and she was really optimistic on that point).

But still, why only two bells? To incite them to fight each other instead of working together?

She needed to expose it to Sasuke or Naruto. But she didn't know where Sasuke was (damn that genius sometimes) and Naruto was busy fighting Kakashi again.

She was distracted by Naruto who succeeded into immobilizing their new sensei with his clones (they were real ones, not illusions, which was surprising).

She was impressed by his tactic but was remembered hardly that jonins were faster than any guenins when Kakashi replaced himself with one of Naruto's clone.

'Naruto is too slow.' She frowned while watched all the Narutos fight each other because they though one was Kakashi disguised.

But she suspected their sensei simply used the permutation technique but couldn't see or sense where he was.

Finally Naruto though of making his clones disappear and he finished alone in the field with his face bruised.

Kara was trying to determine if it was safe to come out when Naruto yelled something like 'bell', and tried to grab something on the ground.

The girl noticed that it was indeed a bell and was about to warn Naruto (seriously, who, apart from Naruto, couldn't see that it was a trap?) when a rope shot up, binding his feet together and turning him upside down.

Kakashi got out, began lecturing Naruto and shurikens shot out suddenly (probably thrown by Sasuke).

Kakashi got them but a moment later he transformed in a log, a permutation jutsu again.

Kara gathered her courage and got out of her hiding place when she was sure (more or less) that Kakashi was nowhere near.

"Kara-chan!" yelled/whined Naruto.

She said nothing but climbed the tree to cut the rope. From above the girl also noticed another rope trap that you couldn't notice from the ground and cut it so that Naruto couldn't fall in that trap too.

"Are you okay?" The girl asked, seeing him hit the ground head first.

"No problem!" he laughed, getting the rope out of his feet before standing.

"Naruto." She began, jumping down to land near the boy "I think that…"

"That Kakashi!" exploded suddenly Naruto "Just wait till I find him and I will show him what I'm capable of!"

"But Naruto…" Kara tried again.

"Don't worry Kara-chan." Cut Naruto as if he just realised she was there (which could be true with him) "I'll get the bells."

And he was gone before the brown haired girl could add something.

'Ok Naruto: failed. I'll try with Sasuke, perhaps he will listen.'

She though about what she just thoughts and sighed heavily before getting up and concentrating on Sasuke's chakra.

She found him quite easily (which means he wasn't hiding himself) and began running to where he was.

She was stopped suddenly when a tornado of leaves came up, circling her for a few seconds before falling down the ground softly.

She immediately noticed the radical change in the landscape. Before her was a rather large clearing when a moment later she was surrounded tightly by trees and bushes.

This was a very obvious genjutsu. She was sure her new sensei just wanted to test her on the most basic sense of the genjutsu art.

She snorted interiorly and was going to dispel the illusion when she heard someone call her name.

She recognised Sasuke's voice and on instinct turned, somewhat curious about what Kakashi had prepared for me.

'Eww' she immediately though, disgusted, when she saw the boy, bloodied and beaten, kunais sprouting out of basically every where from him.

"Kai." She said quietly, dispelling the genjutsu.

She sighed and pinched her nose, trying to get rid more or less of the bloody vision of Sasuke.

She wasn't sensing Kakashi, but that didn't mean he wasn't here.

She then heard Sasuke scream, which mean it was serious (because Sasuke wasn't someone to scream easily).

The green eyed girl ran to a clearing and stopped abruptly in front of a much unexpected situation.

It took her a few seconds of blinking to make sure she wasn't dreaming. Sasuke was deeply buried in the ground, only his head above it.

"Sasuke?" The girl asked slowly, tilting her head aside (this was really beginning to become a habit)

"Kara?" replied back Sasuke, looking curiously neutral (it was refreshing after all these glarings and disdainful tones).

"How…" she tried tentatively "How did you end up…there?"

Sasuke frowned deeply and said:

"Idiot. I fought with Kakashi and I almost got a bell but he tricked me."

"Doton jutsu?" Kara asked after a bit.

"Hn." He replied shortly in a very Uchiha manner.

'Cool.' The girl thought shortly (the technique seemed really effective) before asking:

"Do you have an idea how to get out of here?"

It took the two of them forever to get him out and the moment he was up, he started walking away.

"Sasuke, wait!" Kara called, relieved when he stopped.

She walked to him and began:

"I have a theory about that test."

Sasuke turned slightly to her, raising an eyebrow, showing he was a bit interested.

"Kakashi is a jonin." The green eyed girl continued, relieved to have some positive answer from the stoic boy "He's too strong for us. I think we should team up together. There's only two bells I know but I suppose (and I'm almost sure) it's only to divide us."

There was a short silence before he replied:

"The last time I almost got a bell. I don't need hindrance like you or the dobe."

"Demo…" she tried.

He levelled her with a glare "I need to be stronger than Kakashi and you're nothing but a drag."

He turned and continued to walk away but they heard the ring of the clock.

"Damn." He muttered before running of to the clearing where they started.

Kara sighed and followed him.

There they found Naruto tied to a post.

"Naruto-kun?" Kara asked

He looked away, ashamed. The brown haired girl was tempted to ask what had the blond haired boy done to deserve the punishment, but Kakashi asked them to sit and she decided to ask him later.

"Let's speak about the results of this exam." Began Kakashi "You don't need to return to the academy."

Kara heard Sasuke let a little satisfied 'hn' and Naruto chuckle with a big smile. As for her, she was sure he was hiding something. How could had they passed with only Naruto being hanged upside down from a tree, Sasuke being buried alive to the neck and her only dispelling a tiny genjutsu with no fight whatsoever.

"Yeah." Continued Kakashi "You should simply drop the idea of becoming ninjas."

Sasuke's stare became hard and Naruto stopped smiling, frozen.

'Ah, there it is.' Kara though, frowning at his suggestion, still confused about the why of the situation 'What exactly had we done wrong?'

"What!" yelled Naruto "It's not fair! Simply because we didn't catch any bells."

"You will never become ninjas because you're a bunch of kids. As a matter of fact, the only one who did well during this exam was Kara."

"Me?" The girl asked, dumbfounded "What did I do?"

Her bewildered statement was true. What did she do? She only dispelled a genjutsu. Sasuke could have done the same. She didn't even get to fight properly.

"Why Kara! What did she do that we didn't!" asked/yelled Naruto.

Kakashi never got the chance to reply because in an instant Sasuke charged like a bull.

Of course he was standing no chance and Kakashi pinned him on the ground rather harshly.

"You still don't get it do you?" he said "You think it's easy to be a ninja? Why do you think we got you in groups of three? The success of this exam only depend of a certain mentality."

"Mentality?" repeated Naruto

"Yes." Replied Kakashi "To succeed you must have a certain mentality."

'A certain mentality?' Kara though 'Groups of three? Is it what I think it is?'

The whole situation was becoming clearer and clearer for the green eyed girl, but she was still unsure of her answer to her new sensei's poser. But before beginning to develop her theory more thoroughly, the girl was shooked out of her thinking by Kakashi who asked her:

"Kara? An idea on the answer?"

"Ah, well." The girl replied, unsure and immediately getting shy, an automatism with her each time a stranger asked her something "I don't know if…"

"Don't be afraid." Smiled Kakashi "Say what's on your mind."

"Yeah Kara-chan!" yelled Naruto "We all want the answer!"

"Well." she said hesitantly "Teamwork?"

"Exactly." Replied Kakashi "Teamwork! But it's a bit late now. If you attacked me together, you could have gotten the bells."

"But there were only two bells!" yelled Naruto "That's mean one of us would have inevitably failed!"

"Yes." Replied soberly Kakashi "One of you would have sacrificed himself. But the ones who succeed this exam are the ones for who the success of the group is more important than a personal one. That's being a ninja. And you? What did you do? Naruto, you bulleted in the fight without thinking of a strategy. As for you."

He directed his gaze downward to Sasuke and continued:

"You though your teamates would slow you down so you acted alone. The missions are done in groups. It's true that a ninja have to develop his techniques alone, but he also has to know how to work in group. By acting alone, a ninja compromise the entire mission and the life of his teamates. For example…"

Quicker than lightning, he got out a kunai and put it under Sasuke's throat.

"Kara!" he exclaimed "Kill Naruto! Or Sasuke will die!"

The poor girl froze totally, her mind blank, scared and feeling an intensity of fear she never experienced before. She had no idea what to do and it took several minute to calm myself down, even when Kakashi got back is kunai and continued to speak as if nothing happened.

"This kind of situation can happen. If one of you is taken hostage, it's finish. You will all be brought down one by one. With each mission, a ninja put is life in danger."

He got up and walked away.

"Teamwork is the most important thing in the ninja's life."

He stopped in front of a familiar stone and Kara felt her throat constrict unconsciously like each time she went here.

"Look at the names engraved in this stele. These names represent the heroes of our village."

"This is so cool!" yelled Naruto "I want my name on this too!"

The girl felt a big urge to slap him hard.

'Naruto, baka.' She though sadly.

"I also want to be a hero!" continued Naruto

"Ah?" replied Kakashi "But these aren't ordinary heroes."

"Huh? What did they do to be so particular?"

"They were sacrificed."

"Sacrificed?" asked Naruto "What does it mean?"

"Dobe." Groaned Sasuke "That's mean they're dead."

It was one of the few times Kara saw Naruto loose his usual never ending smile.

"They died to achieve their mission." Said Kakashi.

After that there was a long silence and Kara was thankful because she was busy fighting with her tears.

'Even after all this years.' She though sadly 'I can't look at this stone without remembering what I felt when a random ninja came to my mother and I to announce that my father would not coming back.'

"I'll give you a second chance." Finally added Kakashi, interrupting the girl's brooding train of thoughts "But be warned, I'll be harsher than this morning. Eat, you'll need the energy. And you're forbidden to give any food to Naruto. It's his sanction for trying to steal the lunch boxes. If I catch any of you helping him, this person will be flunk without chance. Is anything clear?"

The three of them said nothing, just nodded and he disappeared after waving goodbye. Sasuke opened a box and began eating under the hungry gaze of Naruto. As for Kara, she was thinking hard.

After noting why Naruto had been punished, she began pondering on Kakashi's attitude.

'Why did he say to not help Naruto when the principle of this exercise his teamwork and supporting each other?' she though, a bit perturbed 'And why did he go after saying that? Is he inviting us, waiting for a mistake?'

Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard Naruto's stomach growl.

Kara looked at him and he seemed positively hungry, but Naruto by principle was always hungry.

"I'm okay!" exclaimed Naruto "In don't need food! And I even am not hungry!"

He was interrupted by his stomach and sighed before saying normally, which was equivalent to whispering with him, that he wasn't hungry.

'This isn't good.' Kara though 'In this state Naruto will not be able to do anything.'

She was cut in her thoughts, but this time by Sasuke who offered his lunch at Naruto.

She had to admit that the gesture surprised her.

"Here, take it." The dark haired boy said shortly.

The girl was about to warn the boys about Kakashi when an idea popped in her head. And if this was another test of teamwork?

In the doubt, she said nothing and waited.

"Demo, Sasuke…" began protesting Naruto.

"If you're hungry you will be of no good to us." Replied Sasuke.

Kara decided to help and rummaged in her bag to take a cereal bar.

"Here Naruto-kun." She said, presenting the food to him "It will be easier to eat."

"Arigato Kara-chan!" exclaimed Naruto, his tears falling like waterfalls.

He took one mouthful of cereal bar and almost immediately smoke erupted near the three.

Kara covered her eyes, letting go accidentally of the bar she was holding. When she opened her eyes again, Kakashi was in front of them with a terrible expression on his face.

"What are you doing!" he thundered "You broke my rule. Suffer the consequences."

He began making hand signs and at this stage Kara was shaking like a leaf.

Black clouds and thunder gathered in the sky and the ground began to rumble and shake.

"Do you have any last wish?" asked casually Kakashi.

"Wait, wait, it's illogical!" yelled back Naruto, gathering his courage (this was one thing Kara admired him for greatly) "You said it yourself!"

Kakashi's expression turned slightly intrigued and the green eyed girl began hoping again.

"Yeah! You said we had to help each other!" yelled Naruto.

"It's you who began talking about teamwork." Added Sasuke.

Kara was too afraid too speak, but nodded vigorously, so much that she began to have a headache.

"So this is what you think." Said Kakashi.

He observed the tree of them longly before his expression changed drastically, a big smile (or what Kara could decipher as a smile, with his mask and all) coming on his face.

"Congratulation." He said happily "You passed!"

Kara though that she became completely frozen in shock and felt an overdose of different emotions rushing in her tired body.

"This is the first time I see that." Explained Kakashi, understanding he would, for the moment, receive no comments "All the others were idiots and only obeyed. A ninja has to see underneath the underneath. In the ninja world those who disobey orders are scum, but those who fail their comrades are worse than scum."

The words were engraved in fire letter in Kara's mind forever. She could clearly feel that this phrase came from their sensei's heart and soul.

She barely heard Kakashi congratulate them again before stating their next meeting for mission tomorrow. She was so shocked and so happy in the same time.

But she was returned to reality when she heard Naruto yelling.

As a matter of facts she realised that they had begun to walk home without him.

She smiled wildly and giggled, letting her nerves relax before going back to free him (not without giggles from her and poutings from Naruto).


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter four

**Petitefeeme: And here is the fourth chapter ^_^**

**Kara: Read and enjoy!**

"Here Sasuke position one."

"Kara, position two…is this really necessary?"

"…Naruto, position three."

"Naruto, you're late, and Kara, take this as an exercise for real mission…the target moved! Get him!"

Kara moved swiftly from her previous position with Sasuke and Naruto trailing behind her. The three of them waited for Kakashi's signal and Naruto threw himself to…a cat.

As a matter of fact, this cat must be the most talented ninja cat of the world for the number of evasion attempts it made to escape his master (Kara couldn't blame the poor animal though).

She was shooked out of her though by Naruto's loud complaining with her radio's earphones. The brown haired girl winced and walked to the blond, took the cat and hit him behind the head.

"Naruto, careful!" She scolded, rubbing the cat behind its ears to calm it "You're hurting everyone's ears with your shouting!"

"Gomen Kara-chan!" smiled sheepishly the blond haired boy.

Kara sighed and used quickly her medical chakra to heal his bigger scratches.

Due to Rin-sensei's training, Kara quickly improved. The girl was always eager to learn and full of imagination. She was extremely proud to hear her sensei said that soon she would be ready for the chuunin medical exam and become a nurse in the hospital (and so reaching the first stage of her long way as an aspiring ANBU medic).

A few minutes after catching the fury beast (in Naruto's opinion), the girl was highly sympathizing with Tora (the cat's name) who was squished alive by his mistress, Shijimi-san, the wife of the fire lord, a generous woman in all senses of the term.

"What a stupid cat. He owned what he suffered!" snickered Naruto when team seven got out of here.

"Naruto!" Kara scolded, but he was already far away, probably running to Ichiraku as she heard him yelling: "Ramen!"

Kara sighed, noticing that the two other members of her team were already gone.

She pouted. Their companionship wasn't the most wonderful, but she positived that at least they could work reasonably well together if she acted as the buffer between the two alpha males.

She chuckled at her terms a bit, but that resumed well the relationship between the two boys. They were in constant competition with each other. Most of the time Sasuke would win but that only pushed Naruto to work harder to achieve his goals.

'At least it his healthy for them.' The brown haired girl though before asking herself what she wanted to do.

The sakura festival was in two days, and exceptionally, They weren't given another mission 'til after the event.

Kara hadn't received an answer from Hinata about her proposition of going together at the festival. During these two days she wanted to train but moreover she was set upon unlocking her ninjutsu.

Kara's father wasn't like any other ninja. He came from a far away clan and his kekke genkai wasn't actually visible to the eyes.

Because the kekke genkai of the Kokoro clan resided into their ninjutsu.

While most ninja used mainly chakra to control the elements, the Kokoros possessed another energy within their body that allowed them to control them without the use of chakra (they only did so to make their techniques even faster).

However, intertwined with their ninjutsu, came the use of fuinjutsu (sealing techniques).

To discover to which element she was affiliated to, Kara had to use an ancient seal used since the beginning in her clan to 'unlock' the kekke genkai of an individual.

Unfortunately for her the seal she had to use was damn complicated.

She knew that after the chuunin medical exam, she could begin to learn fuinjutsu because healing could also involve lifting curses, but she couldn't wait so long (she could be quite stubborn if she wanted to, a trait of character greatly influenced by Naruto).

After analysing all her possibility, Kara decided to first of all visit Hinata and after that making a quick trip to the library.

This decided, the green eyed girl headed towards the Hyuuga compound.

A bit intimidated, she presented herself to the gates and asked the guards to see Hinata.

After waiting for a few minutes, she was lead by a servant to a training ground where Hinata was sparing with her father.

'Beating should be more appropriate.' The girl though, grimacing slightly when Hiashi landed a hard blow on his daughter.

With this their 'spar' finished and they stopped, Hinata catching her breath with difficulty and Hiashi turning his cold gaze to Kara.

"Who are you?" he asked shortly, walking to his towel and water bottle.

"My name is Kara Tashio." The green eyed girl bowed, a bit nervous but determined to not break down under his scrutiny pupiless eyes "Nice to meet you. I came here to see Hinata."

"Hn." Simply said the Hyuuga patriarch, glancing at his elder daughter before turning back to Kara "Come and have tea with us."

The girl didn't have any chance to reply and so was forced to follow the tall man, Hinata coming beside her.

Kara smiled brightly at Hinata, the shy girl returning her gesture.

They sat around a low table and Hiashi ordered tea before beginning a full scale interrogatory on the poor 12 years old girl.

She was forced to tell him almost everything about her: her parents, skills and even her favourite food. She however succeeded to hide more or less her deep bound with Naruto (even after a few minutes with the cold man she could already tell he was very serious about his daughter's acquaintances' background) and her kekke genkai.

Her answers seemed to satisfy him enough and he gave his permission for the two girls to enjoy the festival together.

They agreed on a meeting point and Hiashi excused himself.

Hinata proposed to walk Kara to the gates and the girl happily agreed.

"I'm s-sorry f-for wh-what you s-saw." Said pitifully the dark haired girl as they walked "I know I'm reall-really weak, b-but I'm really w-working h-hard t-to…"

Kara knew where this was going and put a hand on her shoulder, interrupting her ranting.

"You're not weak Hinata-chan" she stated firmly to her "Don't give up, persevere and one day you will be one of the best kunoichi Konoha has to offer. You have me behind you and I will help."

What she said ignited an idea in her mind and the brown haired girl smiled before suggesting:

"How about we train together? Being a Hyuuga you must be pretty good with taijutsu and I need a bit of training in this area."

"Wh-Why not?" replied the shy girl "Wh-When?"

"How about this afternoon? We could spar one hour or two and after see if it is beneficial to have another meeting." Proposed Kara.

Hinata agreed and the two girls hugged each other before parting, Kara's feet walking her to Konoha's library.

There she showed her card to the woman at the reception who told her that unfortunately she only had access to the second level fuinjutsu books (which where reserved to guenin) which were only theoretical.

"It doesn't matter, thank you." Replied the 12 years old girl before heading to the second floor. She needed all the knowledge she could find, as little it could be.

Effectively the aisle dedicated to sealing techniques was extremely short and after taking two or three books about it she climbed down the stairs to the reception to check them.

She vaguely heard someone yell her name and two seconds later she was brutally tackled in a hug, losing her books.

"Kara-chan!" exclaimed happily Shisui, hugging fiercely the girl "You have to save me!"

"Why?" asked tentatively the still stunned girl.

"My captain wants me to read books and learn." Said the Uchiha like someone had announced him that he was sentenced to death.

"Knowledges are important to a shinobi." Said Kara, not understanding his aversion for learning "Without them you would probably die on missions."

"You are also against me?" pouted the ANBU.

He was going to continue but a voice interrupted him.

"Shisui." Said stoically Itachi Uchiha, 16 years old, ANBU captain and the head of the Uchiha clan.

"Mou, Itachi-kun!" whined Shisui "Can't we go train instead?"

Kara had always been a very good judge of character and in the years honed her gift, realising the usefulness of such a feat.

Itachi on first glance seemed unreadable, and Kara had great difficulty to read anything on him, but there was an aura of deep sadness around him that she only saw on Shisui and Sasuke.

Of course, the girl, like anyone else in Konoha, new of the Uchiha catastrophe when the Kyuubi attacked the village 12 years ago.

The great fox was kept at bay at the level of Konoha walls when he saw a path open and rushed in.

No one knew how this occurred, but while trying to stop him the ninjas let the beast rush into the Uchiha compound.

The clan had stand no chance, being unprepared, and were quickly whipped out, the only survivor being Sasuke (a baby at that time, he was found in a little temple that the fox's paws and tails miraculously missed).

Shisui, Itachi and a lot of other Uchiha were fighting at that time, but only the two survived.

But while Sasuke's aura seemed clouded with sadness and anger and Shisui's with sadness and remorse, Itachi was more ….tense, should she say.

He was obviously stressed and sad, almost in despair.

Kara couldn't help the deep compassion feeling that arose within her towards the teen and the two other Uchihas in general.

"You're trying to do sealing techniques?" asked Shisui while picking up her book for her.

That shocked the girl out of her thoughts. She was so absorbed in trying to read Itachi that she didn't noticed the older Uchiha bending to retrieve her fallen books.

"Thank you." She replied, getting them from him "And yes. I want to become a sealing specialist."

'After all the members of my fallen clan were expert themselves for developing such seals.' She tough for herself, remembering the different seal patterns she saw in her clan sealing book.

"Well good luck princess!" exclaimed Shisui, ruffling her hairs before sprinting upstairs.

Itachi gave a nod and followed after him, leaving a pouting girl (Shisui's antics to her hairs were becoming quite bothersome).

She sighed and headed to the reception's desk and checked the books before walking to her apartment, paging through them.

::This is the line XD::

Kara sat on the ground, under the shade of a tree, exhausted.

Beside her, Hinata all but flopped to the ground, grabbing a water bottle and drinking greedily.

"I think that this…training is really good…for the both of us." Panted Kara, smiling tiredly at the pale eyed girl next to her.

"…Hai." Replied the Hyuuga heiress, as tired as she was, sending her own smile back.

Kara exhaled a long breath before flopping down, stretching her cramped body on the ground.

Hinata imitated her and together they enjoyed the companionable silence that surrounded them.

Frankly, Kara was glad for the distraction. After walking home from the library she had began reading through the books and memorized them quickly.

She had accepted Naruto's invitation to have ramen since she didn't prepared anything, too absorbed in her reading, and after lunch had finished the last books.

She was happy to discover that there were a few very simple seals and began working on one of them. It apparently would permit her to securely close anything like a scroll, a book or a box unless a more experienced enemy ninja was around (all in one any ninja above guenin level).

Since then she had tried to perform the seal and stayed stuck there. No matter how much she kept doing it, each time there was a tiny little something that she wasn't doing right and the seal would end up unusable, no matter how much chakra she poured into it.

"I don't understand." Kara said to Hinata, returning to the present "From what I saw, you are strong, quite resourceful and I'm sure you can summon enough will to be on par with Naruto. So why are you so subdued with your father?"

"My father always made me feel weak, not worthy of being a Hyuuga." Answered quietly the girl after a moment of silence "I can't seem to find the strength to go against him."

Kara turned her head to look at the pale eyed girl. Hinata looked so sad and demoralized.

The brown haired girl didn't think, she just took the other girl's hand and squeezed.

Hinata turned to her a misty gaze and smiled at her friend's silent but strong support.

"I'm sure that one day, you'll be stronger than any Hyuuga." Assured her Kara, smiling brightly.

The green eyed girl, seeing the still disbelieving face of her friend, got an idea.

"Let's make a promise." She proposed, for moment thanking Naruto for rubbing on her "We'll promise each other to become strong independent kunoichis and be there for each other."

"O-Okay." Agreed Hinata with a smile.

They sealed the deal with their pinkies and giggled at their childishness before parting their ways (but not before setting another training session of course).

::This is the line::

Kara smirked as the seal before her glowed softly. She was almost totally covered in ink, a lot of brushes were on the ground, broken, she was tired but she was successful!

She had finally created her own first level locking seal! She knew that this was the first step of a very long way but she was so excited!

She looked at the hour to realise it already was already 12 o'clock. She hadn't slept nor eaten at all since she got back from training with Hinata so absorbed she was with her work.

She still had three hours before meeting Hinata for another training session. She could clean up a bit and sleep before departing.

So she straightened and cleaned the mess she made with the ink and papers before heating some rice, making a note to shop later for food.

While the rice was cooking she washed her face and arms and ate quickly before going to bed.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter five

"Naruto-kun!" Kara yelled, banging on the blond haired boy's door "Are you ready yet?"

She was wearing a nice peach orange yukata with brown flowers and grey wolves embroidered on it, a red obi and a purple slash. Her long dark brown hairs were braided with two thin golden ribbons, bringing out their red-golden highlights.

She only heard a muffled answer and frowned before leaving, but not before saying:

"Remember Naruto, meet me and Hinata at the main centre of the festival."

Kara happily skipped to the Hyuuga's compound and waved to the guards.

Again a servant guided her to a waiting room.

The girl waited a few minutes before the door opened to let Hinata and her father inside.

Hinata was cute in her light yellow yukata with dark orange flowers and dark blue fishes embroidered on it. Her obi was white and her slash red. As a hair ornament she had a white bow put on her head.

Her father was more traditional with his white and black simple ensemble.

There was another awkward moment while Hyashi lectured them on responsibilities and carefulness, then he let them go.

"You're beautiful in that kimono." Complimented Kara, smiling.

"I r-return t-the c-compliment." Replied Hinata.

They smiled at each other and proceeded towards the festivities.

They had a lot of fun, despite Kara's exasperation to not find Naruto at the meeting point.

'So much for my plan to get them together.' The brown haired girl mulled over while taking a photo of Hinata.

The pupiless eyed girl was concentrating on throwing a ball in the centre of a can.

Of course, her being a ninja, she won the prize she wanted, a white rabbit plushie.

"Oh, let's go there!" exclaimed excitedly Kara, seeing an herbal stand not too far away from them.

She was choosing some tea brew with the help of Hinata when the two girls heard a huge blast.

They looked at each other before rushing toward the commotion.

They arrived at the centre place to freeze over the disaster.

Everything, and Kara meant it, everything, was covered with a sticky substance and little white flurry feathers.

'Honey' though Kara, observing more closely the stand next to her.

Suddenly they heard a yell that Kara identified immediately and turned to see Naruto pursued by angry shinobis and a few villagers.

"I-Is th-that…." Began Hinata, bewildered.

"Hai." Finished Kara for her "That's Naruto for you. The number one knuckleheaded ninja and prankster."

She sighed before muttering: "Now I know why he didn't answer when I came to get him."

The two girls were silent for a moment until Kara noticed a boy she knew, covered in honey and white feather.

"Sasuke-san…" she whispered in bewilderment, making Hinata turn around and notice him.

The poor girl had to put both hand on her mouth to keep from giggling madly. As for Kara, she had already activated her poker face.

Here was Sasuke Uchiha in his full glory, covered in honey and feathers.

Beside him were Itachi and Shisui. Itachi wasn't paying him a lot of attention, more focused on gazing where Naruto disappeared, a horde of furious men after him.

But as for Shisui, the boy was almost bending, a hand over his mouth and his face slightly red from containing his laughter.

This was, by the way, probably why Sasuke glared murderously at Kara when she neared him, Hinata carefully trailing behind her.

The girl, unperturbed, rummaged in her bag before getting out her black cape she brought in case there was rain.

She surrounded silently and swiftly the boy in it. She was a bit taller the raven haired boy, so it fitted him.

"Here." She said, putting up the hood over his head "Like that you can walk home without much trouble. And I expect to have my coat back unscathed."

The dark eyed boy never answered, but Kara never waited for one. She simply turned on her heels after politely greeting Shisui and Itachi and engaged another conversation with Hinata.

"So, what do you think?" she asked the shy girl "I really love forest berries mixed with black tea. But since I taste the lemon and green tea, I've totally fallen in love with it."

"W-well." Said tentatively Hinata, still not comfortable with the dark look Sasuke was sending their way "H-how ab-about l-lemon an-and ber-berries t-tea?"

"That's actually not a bad idea Hinata-chan." replied Kara, thinking.

In the end, Kara settled for a raspberry and lemon green tea, a mint infusion and some herbs to make new medicines. Her new sensei Rin always encouraged her pupil to make her own medicine instead of borrowing from the hospital. She said that like that, the girl was more inclined to create her own new brews later. Plus, with Sasuke and Naruto in a constant and more than violent rivalry, having medicine at hand reach wasn't a bad idea.

The two girls enjoyed the rest of their time together before Hinata's cousin, Neji, came to get her.

Kara waved to Hinata and bowed politely at Neji before walking rapidly home, the weather becoming cold and even a bit damp.

She shivered as she entered her apartment. She quickly set up the radiators in the little space before taking a hot shower and changing into her pyjamas (which consisted into an oversized shirt that belonged to her father and a short).

Relaxed, she busied herself with preparing dinner for her and Naruto. She was almost sure that at the moment Naruto was given an earful from Iruka-sensei or the Hokkage (or both).

So when he came back he was fated to be exhausted and hungry.

Therefore she had to cook him dinner (she refused to let him eat ramen three times a day).

She prepared a tray and walked out of her apartment to Naruto's.

She knocked lightly before entering, finding her friend on the couch asleep.

She gazed tenderly at the blond haired boy before putting the tray on the table.

Soon enough the food aroma woke Naruto up and he thanked her before wolfing down his part.

Kara ate hers at a more sedate pace and gathered the dishes before saying goodnight to Naruto and getting back in her own apartment.

"I have enough of the boring mission!" yelled Naruto to the Hokkage "I want something exciting!"

'Ah, there it is.' Though Kara, sighing discreetly 'He finally cracked.'

The Hokkage was enumerating the D-ranked missions they had to do when Naruto suddenly yelled that he was tired of simple missions such as these.

It soon escalated in an argument between Naruto and Iruka-sensei, who was present until Kakashi bumped the blond on his head, making him loose concentration.

The Hokkage then began an explanation on the different missions, but Kara tuned him out to look discreetly at Sasuke.

Looking at his expression (the girl soon learned to read the boy pretty well), Sasuke was agreeing with Naruto.

Kara sighed. She wasn't going to get any help controlling Naruto.

She didn't want to admit it, but she was afraid to take a mission higher than D-ranked. She didn't feel ready but she knew that she would never unless someone pushed her a bit.

So she decided that if, by any chance, the Hokkage actually agreed to give them a C-ranked mission, she would face it the most prepared and bravely she could.

She let the though roll into her mind before sighing again in despair. Who was she kidding! She would be really nervous if it were to come to that.

She got out of her thoughts at the same time the Hokkage finished explaining things. Of course Naruto hadn't listened at all and was talking about ramen.

The Hokkage scolded him but he replied that he wasn't a child anymore (while turning around and pouting like there was no tomorrow).

Surprisingly though, the Hokkage smiled slightly before agreeing to assign them a C ranked mission.

Kara stared at the old man, dumbfounded. Was he going to give up like that, without a fight?

He had something up his sleeves, Kara was sure of it.

'You'll have to escort a certain person." The Hokkage said calmly.

"Escort?" repeated eagerly Naruto "Who? A feudal lord? A princess?"

"Don't get so hasty" replied coolly the old man "I'll introduce him now."

"Can you please come in?" he called.

We turned to see the door opening to reveal an old man holding a bottle of alcohol.

"What? They're all kid." He half-slurred before taking a sip of his brown bottle.

There was a stunned silence before the man asked meanly:

"Hey, is the smallest one there with the idiotic face really a ninja?"

"Ha ah!" laughed Naruto "Who is the smallest one with the idiotic face?"

In an unspoken accord, Sasuke and Kara stepped near Naruto so that he could see that he was the shortest of the three.

A few minutes after (Naruto had to actually acknowledge the man's insult), the blond haired boy was trying to 'kill' the old man with Kakashi-sensei holding him back.

"Don't kill the man we're supposed to escort, baka." Said an already tired Kakashi to a yelling Naruto.

"I'm the bridge building expert Tazuna." Said the man, finally introducing himself "Once I have returned to my country, I will have all of you protect my life with yours while I complete the bridge."

That sure didn't reassure Kara at all.

They quickly agreed on meeting tomorrow morning at the gate and then everyone went on their separate ways.

Kara was walking slowly on a sunny street, trying to calm her worries. She was alone, Naruto long ago abandoning her for some ramens at Ichiraku.

She couldn't help it but be anxious. What if something went wrong? What if Naruto got hurt (which was more probably going to happen, the boy was an injury magnet).

She sighed, getting out of her dark thoughts. Thinking like that would be counterproductive.

She decided to go excuse herself with Hinata and Rin-sensei and directed her walk toward the Hyuuga compound.

Everything went well and Hinata wished her good luck, promising to train while she wasn't there.

They settled another training together after she got back and Kara departed, hugging her friend before walking to the hospital.

"Kara-chan?" asked the nurse at the office.

"Is Rin-sensei free?" Kara asked "I need to see her."

Apparently she looked more anxious than she wanted everyone to know because the nurse looked worriedly at her before calling Rin-sensei.

Soon enough the two were drinking a tea at the hospital cafeteria.

"Tomorrow I'm going on my first C-ranked mission." Stated the anxious girl after a moment of silence.

"I see." Said slowly Rin, looking at her "And did you prepare?"

"No, I haven't made my bag yet."

"I wasn't talking about that."

Kara looked at the woman curiously, wondering what she was meaning.

"Did you make research on the place you'll be going? Did you check your medicine pouch? Did you search for the potential dangers you will encounter?"

Kara was just speechless. She had honestly never though about it.

"No, gomen." She said sheepishly, looking down at her green tea.

She was a bit ashamed to not have though of that instead of internally panicking.

"It's okay." Smiled softly Rin "It's your first time after all. But you have to remember the next time that a ninja prepared will rarely be caught off guard."

Kara smiled and thanked her before rushing to the library to get some books.

She got scolded a bit by the secretary for running inside, but she was able to borrow some books on the wave country.

She passed the rest of the afternoon reading.

Kara learned the wave country's history and actual situation. It was a very little country without any ninja village made of several islands.

Its economy was based on anything to do with the sea. They built and sold every kind of water transportation, they provided also more than 40% of the fishes used in their world. It was indeed a big number.

Its history worried the girl a little. The wave country was known for its gangs and bandits too. In the recent newspapers she borrowed there were some articles about a man named Gato who took over the every ship companies through basically threats and terror.

She became worried at the possibilities a bridge would bring for both the villagers and this Gato. For them, it meant a future free from being controlled by him, but for the latter, it would be the end of his empire.

Could he also employ ninja like the bridge builder had?

She shook away this idea. Kakashi-sensei didn't seem worried and it was only one island, right?

She decided to trust Kakashi and prepared her bag.

A positive point, she discovered that the island they were heading for had a much known plant helping recovering from partial paralysis and another fighting exhaustion.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter six

**Petitefeeme: And here is another chapter of my story ^_^ **

**Kara: Currently the author is doing her exams, but of course she will continue posting a chapter each week. **

**Petitefeeme: And if I pass them I will post TWO chapters in both of my story.**

**Kara: So we better cheer on the author!**

**Naruto: YEAH! I'M SURE PETITEFEEME WILL ROCK HER EXAMS! BELIVE IT!**

**Petitefeeme: Thank you Naruto-kun ^_^ now read and enjoy!**

Hinata was walking out of the Hyuuga compound, humming ever so softly an old tune her mother used to sing.

She was happy with the progresses she made during the week. They were slow but significant.

Using Kara's tips and advises, she tried to improve her chakra reserves and she now had an increase of 10 % of her chakra, give or take a few.

She also improved her weaponry skills, finding the courage to go find one of her cousin Neji's teamates who was already known for her mastery of any weapons.

Truly, Tenten was a really nice girl and helped her work on her kunai skills in exchange of some knowledge on plants.

The black haired girl couldn't thank Kara enough for letting her borrow her medical books and at the end of the week Tenten assured her she had made significant progresses.

She also worked a bit on her chakra control and byakugan, but her greatest victory was when she held her own in a fight against her little sister.

For most, being able to properly fight a sister that was still in the academy wasn't an accomplishment, but for Hinata who had problem standing against any member of her family, it was a great improvement.

Of course it didn't move her father at all, but Hanabi frowned and Hinata couldn't wait to tell Kara!

She was distracted from her thoughts by yells near the compound gate's area. Curious, she walked faster and after turning into a corner she came upon a scene she never though she would see.

Restrained by two guards was Naruto Uzumaki yelling like there was no tomorrow something that was close to her name.

"Na-Naruto-k-san?" Hinata asked curiously and very shyly, nearing her secret crush.

"Hinata-chan!" Naruto yelled once he noticed her.

He struggled out of the guards' grasp and ran to her.

"Hinata!" he yelled, taking her hand before dragging her with him "You have to help me!"

Her face as red as a ripe cherry, Hinata could only stumbled after him, her heart beating in her ribcage like there was no tomorrow.

'I think I'm gonna faint.' She weakly though, looking at their intertwined hands before noticing he was speaking.

She concentrated on what he was talking about:

"….And since then she didn't come out of her apartment, she blocked the door somehow and I can't get in. She doesn't want to walk out or talk with anyone. She even let me stuff myself with ramen for two whole days! Can you believe it, two whole days without a word for my unhealthy diet!"

Hinata blinked at the flow of words coming from his mouth before linking everything together.

Everything clicked and she immediately became worried.

"Is she alright?" she asked, forgetting her stuttering for a moment, which was a miracle considering her crush was holding her hand.

"She isn't hurt." Answered shortly Naruto, entering an apartment complex and climbing the stairs full speed "But I heard her cry once or twice."

They stopped in front of an apartment door and Naruto literally banged on the door.

"Kara-chan open!" he yelled "I brought Hinata!"

The pearl eyed girl decided to take over and neared the door.

"K-Kara-chan?" she asked, knocking slightly on the door "Pl-please, I j-just want t-to t-talk t-to you. I'm wor-worried."

She obtained no answer so she continued.

"S-since we ent-entered the a-academy you w-were th-there for me. Reassuring m-me and sm-smiling at me when all my fam-family was doing was br-bringing me down and f-frrown d-down at me. You helped me imp-improve and g-grow up, even if it-it's only a lit-little. I'll n-never thank you en-enough for what you d-did. So pl-please, th-this once, let me help you in ret-return. We made a pr-promise n-no? I want t-to honour it."

They only waited a few seconds before sensing a wave of chakra.

Hinata opened the door but stopped Naruto when he moved to follow her.

"No N-Naruto-san." She said gently "I d-don't think it's a g-good id-idea."

She entered quickly and closed the door, taking time to bring down her mad blush (after all she talked twice with Naruto without fainting).

She found Kara in her bed, her covers hiding her entire body.

"K-Kara-chan?" asked Hinata, sitting next to her and putting a hand on her covered shoulder.

"I'm pathetic." The brown haired girl whispered after a few minutes.

"O-Of course you're not!" exclaimed Hinata, angry that her best and only friend would think that "Wh-What made you th-think th-that?"

She had to wait for a few minutes before hearing a reply.

"During that C-raked mission, we were attacked by two chuunin level ninja."

Hinata gasped.

"I got out of it unarmed." Reassured Sakura "But not because of my skills. One of them was coming to me but Sasuke appeared and brought him down before I could do anything. I felt weak and of no use. And Sasuke called me weak and useless after that!"

Kara continued, telling Hinata everything that happened.

"During all the fights I did nothing!" she exclaimed in conclusion "The only thing I did was standing dumbly beside Tazuna-san and I couldn't even protect him like I was told to."

She began crying and Hinata brought the girl in a hug.

They stayed like that for a while before Kara calmed down.

"Thank you Hinata-chan" said the green eyed girl "And to think I hate appearing weak, here I am letting you see me crying."

She turned away to dry her tears and sat properly near the pearl eyed girl on the edge of the bed.

"Y-you have t-to see the p-positive p-points." Said Hinata, trying to cheer her up "You t-told m-me you m-more or less sensed the g-genjutsu on the p-puddle, and it was a ch-chuunin levelled g-genjutsu. You p-permitted your sensei t-to heal faster with your healing knowledges after his fight with Z-Zabuza. You k-kept Naruto from dr-drowning when he f-fell in the lake in th-the middle of the fight and you s-saved Sasuke after his fight with th-this fake hunter-nin, even if it was only fr-from a light p-paralysis."

"And th-this experience sh-should motivate you t-to improve instead of br-bringing you down." The dark haired girl added "You have t-to prove to S-Sasuke you're st-strong. Are you g-going to let him g-go with his insults? You have to k-kick his ass!"

"Isn't that more or less the words I used to get you to fight against your father's opinion and motivate you to improve?" replied Kara with a smile.

"R-Really?" asked Hinata, trying to look as innocent as possible.

Kara erupted in giggles, quickly followed by Hinata.

"But nevertheless, you're right." Said Kara, getting up and stretching "I shouldn't let this get too much out of me. It was only one mission, my first one. Kami know how much of them I will have in my life. I have to learn from my errors and take steps forward. How about you wait for me in the living room and when I showered and dressed I'll take you out for lunch. The fridge is empty and I'm quite hungry."

"S-Sure." Answered happily Hinata. "I'm hungry t-too."

And with an after though, the shy girl added:

"You sh-should invite N-Naruto t-too. He was qu-quite worried ab-about you. He was th-the one th-that br-brought me here."

Kara's expression became tender at the mention of Naruto and she agreed.

When Hinata opened the door, Naruto was still there. He looked expectantly at the Hyuuga girl and she smiled before saying:

"K-Kara-ch-chan is t-taking a sh-shower. Th-Then we will g-go eat outside. Do you w-want t-to c-come?"

"Of course Hinata-chan!" yelled Naruto before gathering the girl into a hug "Thanks a lot! I didn't know what to do anymore! You saved the day!"

If Hinata turned a pretty cherry colour when she heard the suffix –chan added to her name, she simply fainted when her crush hugged her.

"Eh? Hinata-chan!" asked Naruto, worried.

At that moment Kara walked out of her bedroom and sighed seeing the fainted Hinata.

'Poor Hinata-chan.' She though smiling before asking Naruto to put the poor girl on the couch.

"Ne Kara-chan?" asked Naruto, looking worriedly at his sister like figure "Are you sure you're alright?"

"Yes I am." Answered gently the girl "I'm sorry for worrying you."

She hugged him gently and he returned the gesture. They separated when they heard Hinata groaning.

The pearl eyed girl held lightly her head and sat more straight on the couch before turning to them.

"What h-happened?" she asked a bit drowsily.

"Don't worry Hinata-chan." Smiled Kara "You just fainted a bit. Now should we go eat something?"

Hinata smiled shyly before nodding and straightening, following Kara and Naruto out.

One week had passed now and team 7 hadn't done much other than D-ranked missions. For each one of them Naruto found himself in a life threatening situation and constantly got rescued by Sasuke and Kara. This didn't improve at all the relationship between the two boys. They both wanted some action and were beginning to get frustrated.

For the whole week Kara had prepared herself for a sort of revenge on Sasuke.

She understood that nothing would improve if Sasuke believed her incapable of handling even a simple situation. She had somehow to gain a semblance of respect for him.

Unfortunately with males such as him, violence was the only answer.

In one word, if she didn't beat him or at least hold her own on a fight against him, he wouldn't look twice at her.

This is why she prepared herself carefully. The training with Hinata she had twice or three times a week became a daily training. Her best friend kindly introduced her to Tenten, who Kara discovered was a very nice girl. The brown eyed girl agreed like for Hinata to help her weapon training in exchange for some tips in poisons.

She doubled her effort on chakra control and endurance. She even bought some weights for her ankles and wrists.

On the medical side, even if she didn't do well in general during the mission, Rin-sensei was happy of her medical interventions and began training her for the medic chuunin exam.

On the seal techniques, she made a great leap forward and was almost ready to do the test seal.

They were eleven 'powers or elements' her clan could use, the four basics: earth, fire, air and water, secondary elements: nature and electricity, the yin and yang power referring to the light and darkness, and the powers relative to the body: mind, heart and soul.

The test seal helped find with each element and/or power you were affiliated to.

After that, there was a seal for each element/power. The four basic elements had the easiest ones, the secondary elements' were a bit harder, the body's powers' were hard and the yin and yang one's required a high level of mastery.

Today was the day and Kara was gathering all the courage she could find.

She took a deep breath and knocked.

To her relief it was Shisui who answered.

"Kara-chan!" the man exclaimed, ruffling her hairs in a familiar gesture.

Kara sighed exasperatedly and redid her hairs a bit before asking:

"Is Sasuke here?"

"He's at the Uchiha training ground like 90 % of his time home." Snickered slightly Shisui, pointing a direction.

"Arigato." Kara said politely before bowing slightly and directing her feet towards the Uchiha training ground.

Shisui waved at her before his head disappeared into the house again.

The more Kara approached, the more she felt nervous. When she arrived at said training ground, she had to take a few seconds before calling out to him.

He stopped his training and turned to her, a frown marring his face.

"What do you want." He said harshly "I don't have all day, hurry."

Kara took a deep breath and walked to him.

"We need to talk Sasuke." She said very seriously "It's about the wave mission."

He turned fully to her, giving his attention this time.

"At the beginning when we got attacked by the two chuunin nins." Kara began "You intercepted one who was coming near me and Tazuna-san."

She sighed before continuing:

'After that, you called me weak and pathetic. Why is that so?"

"Because you are weak and pathetic." Sasuke sneered "Incapable of handling a single blow."

"How could you know that?" frowned Kara "For all you know I could have been prepared to counter and you rushing in front of me could have been dangerous. What if I was about to throw something? Your intervention was uncalled for."

"Moreover." Continued Kara, getting more worked up "It proves that you don't trust me at all and that could also be dangerous. Did you not hear what Kakashi sensei said? Teamwork is the key. How are we going to accomplish anything if you don't trust me even a little?"

"However." She finished "I perfectly know that you will never give your trust, especially to me. So that leaves me only one option. Fight me."

"Are you serious?" asked Sasuke in disbelief.

Kara said nothing, choosing to just fall into a battle stance.

"You aren't anywhere near my level." Glared Sasuke "Get lost."

The brown haired girl sighed discreetly and sneered:

"So it's true then?"

Sasuke, who was walking away, stopped and turned to glare at her.

"What?" he asked moodily.

"That you are simply a coward." Kara told him in a sing song voice, mocking him.

The girl didn't like how low she had to hit, but her comment had the desired effect.

Sasuke came rushing to her, prepared to strike.

Kara dodged him almost effortlessly and frowned.

"Please Sasuke!" She exclaimed while dodging "You have to calm down! I came here to fight seriously."

This only made him more pissed and his movements became harsher and not coordinated.

Kara sighed discreetly before passing under his guard and knocking the wind out of him by a direct hit at his diaphragm.

His eyes widened and he landed a few meters from her.

"Could you fight more seriously now?" I asked, letting him recover.

His glare hardened and this time he began to fight her seriously.

But apparently the training had paid off for Kara was able to not only dodge, but also land a couple of well placed blows.

They battled for half an hour and Kara was beginning to feel tired when Sasuke began to form the seals for his fireball jutsu.

Kara panicked before trying to turn the situation to her advantage.

Sasuke fired his fireball which came right at her.

She threw a paper bomb at it to make it explode at midway and threw immediately after a smoke bomb.

She entered the wood nearby and hide her chakra before beginning to set some traps while Sasuke was searching her.

Once she finished she made herself noticed by Sasuke who immediately followed.

The only thing he didn't notice was that he was following a clone and fell right into her traps.

He was too occupied to dodge them and the brown haired girl was able to slip behind him and put a kunai against his throat.

"I win!" she exclaimed happily, taking a step back and sitting against a tree "It was a good fight ne?"

Sasuke only snorted and sat on the other side of the clearing.

"You know." Said kindly Kara "Everyone at the beginning is kind of weak, but we can all improve. I just want for the team to work and that does never gonna happen if you can't trust me enough to handle my part of the job."

The green eyed girl straightened and brushed her tattered clothes before bowing slightly.

"Now if you'll excuse me." She said "I have to wash and prepare dinner for Naruto and I. Would you like to come?"

"Hn." Was the only reply she got but the brown haired girl only smiled before walking away.

"Then you can come around eight o'clock." She threw over her shoulder before disappearing from his view.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter seven

**Petitefeeme: Written exams done. Oral ones yet to be done (the hardest). I have to stay focused. Anyway, here is the seventh chapter, read and enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own any Naruto's characters except my own OC.**

Kara sighed discreetly beside Kakashi-sensei as Naruto and Sasuke entered into yet another staring/glaring contest.

The relationship between her and Sasuke hadn't really progressed. Sure he didn't insult her anymore but he wasn't exactly friendly either. But she guessed it was better than his constant glares and insults (now he only looked boredly at her, it was an improvement really).

She turned to Kakashi to see him stare at a bird circling above the group.

But why would he stare like that at a bird? Unless it was a signal or something like that.

"Shall we call it quit for today?" He finally said, turning to them, verifying Kara's hypothesis "I have to go submit the mission report now."

That made Kara extremely suspicious. If she learnt anything at all about Kakashi-sensei during this year, it was the fact that he was extremely lazy. So why would he want to go early to make the mission reports?

This was hiding something, but without any way to confirm it, she let it go and decided to more or less trust the man.

"Then I'm going." Replied almost immediately Sasuke before turning and walking away.

Kara sighed (again) at the non-existent bound in team 7 as their lazy sensei poofed away in a cloud of smoke.

"Rah!" yelled Naruto, frustrated "I'll show this teme who's the best!"

"Naruto…" Kara began only to stop when a box came crawling to them.

'What is it supposed to be?' though the brown haired girl, unsure 'A rock?'

Naruto began walking away, the 'rock' following him. When he saw the thing was still following him, the blond haired boy began then to run, of course followed by it'.

Kara giggled silently, at this point guessing who was under that box.

Finally Naruto stopped and yelled, pointing at the thing:

"A square rock with two holes does not exist! It's so obvious."

"I should have expected that from the man whom I have high hopes for and is also my rival." Replied a voice Kara recognised.

The box exploded with coloured smokes and Kara had to shield her face.

When they dissipated she could see three children on the ground coughing.

"You used too much powder." Said one she recognised as Konohamaru.

Basically everyone knew who Konohamaru was (except for Naruto but he was almost always an exception), but she was a bit surprised when she saw him from time to time, spying on Naruto or trying to get him to play with him.

He had almost always failed and a few times Kara had him for tea time, seeing that sometimes he would sit the whole day in front of Naruto's door, trying to get him to train him or something else.

"Are you three alright?" the brown haired girl asked, kneeling at their level.

"Ah! Kara-nee-chan!" yelled Konohamaru, recognising her.

"Konohamaru." Greeted Kara "How are you?"

"Quite fine thanks." Replied the boy "I'm currently training to be the best ninja in the world!"

"That's quite a will." Smiled Kara "and who are your friends?"

"I'm Moegi, the one who possesses the sex appeal of an adult, and the female ninja from the senior group." The little girl beside Konohamaru exclaimed happily, taking a pose.

"R-Really?" asked Kara, a bit taken off by her affirmations.

"The ones who loves dividing numbers, Udon." Presented himself the second boy.

"Nice to meet you Udon." Smiled Kara.

"And let's not forget!" exclaimed Konohamaru "This village's number one genius ninja, Konohamaru!"

"Three of us make the Konohamaru corps!" they exclaimed in synch, taking once again a pose.

"Just as I though, it was the three of you." Mumbled Naruto "Why do you have goggles on?"

Kara smiled at the cuteness of the situation. The three of them had a replica of Naruto's ancient goggles.

'They're really fans.' The brown haired girl though amusedly.

"We copied the old you." Smiled broadly Konohamaru

"Oh?" answered Naruto, unimpressed.

"Oh?" replied Konohamaru, frowning "You've been treating us so cold lately."

"And? What do you want?" asked boredly Naruto.

"Well leader." Asked Moegi, taking Konohamaru's place "Do you have time right now?"

"No." answered the blond boy "I'm going to go train!"

"But leader!" whined Konohamaru "You said that you would play ninja with us!"

"Really?" asked Naruto, embarrassed.

Seeing the situation degenerate, Kara decided to intervene.

"How about treating you three to eat something." I proposed.

"Onto ni!" exclaimed Konohamaru "Arigato Kara-nee-chan!"

"Yes, arigato!" added Moegi.

Kara smiled and gestured to them to lead the way:

"Take whatever stand you want."

They darted immediately forward, Kara and Naruto following them.

"But Kara-chan!" whined Naruto "I wanted to train!"

"Naruto." Answered Kara "You and I are always doing mission or training. It's good once in a while to take a little break. And your three fans missed you."

Naruto grumbled but said nothing more.

They suddenly heard Konohamaru's yell, the boy having run ahead of them and Kara, worried, rushed forward with Naruto close behind her.

When they turned the corner they found him hanging by his scarf in the hold of a boy perhaps a bit older than them, his body entirely covered by a black cloth and his face hidden behind white and purple paint.

Beside him was a girl with dirty blond hairs pulled up into four ponytails and forest dark green eyes.

They both had a giant thing on their backs, but what intrigued Kara the most was their headband with another village symbols.

"That hurt, brat." Said the boy, tightening his hold on the scarf.

"Stop it." Scolded the girl beside him "We're going to get scolded later."

"Please." I said, trying to settle the situation peacefully "We're sorry for bumping into you, Konohamaru wasn't looking ahead. You're hurting him, release him."

"And who are you to tell me what to do?" snorted the boy "I want to play around before some noisy people come."

"Let go." Yelled Konohamaru, kicking him with his feet, trying to get him to release him.

"You're very energetic kid." Sneered the boy before tightening his hold even more.

Kara saw how much in pain Konohamaru was and knew Naruto was ready to confront him.

But before she could even do something, Naruto sprang forward, his fist aimed at the boy holding Konohamaru.

She noticed the boy moving his finger and saw briefly glinting strings before Naruto lost his balance.

'What was that?' she thought, as surprised as was Naruto.

"Konoha genins are weak." Said snobbishly the boy

"Hey you!" yelled Naruto, pointing to the boy "Release Konohamaru or you're going to get it!"

"Naruto!" scolded Kara. It wasn't enough for him to have Konohamaru, the blond boy had to provoke him into more action."

"You piss me off." Replied the boy, smirking cruelly "That makes me want to break you."

"I'm not responsible for what you'll do." Sighed the girl.

Seeing the boy raising his fist, Kara knew what he was about to do and decided to intervene.

She couldn't do a direct action, Konohamaru was in the way. So she had to distract him enough for him to release the little boy.

"Naruto." She whispered to the blond head beside her in quick warning before throwing a needle.

She was still new to it (It was just two weeks ago that Tenten suggested it after observing Kara's fighting style), so the needle didn't hit a nerve to relax or paralyse the hand, but the pain was enough to distract him and he let go of Konohamaru.

Naruto, thankfully, had gotten the hint and darted forward, catching Konohamaru before returning to Kara's side.

"You little bitch!" growled the boy, ready to pummel her.

Kara was ready to run with everyone else and she barely saw the stone hitting the side of the boy's head.

The boy stopped, stunned, and turned to see Sasuke sitting on a tree branch.

'As he come to rescue his teamates?' though Kara 'Or just to show off?'

What do you think you're doing in another's village?" the dark haired boy asked coolly, playing with another pebble.

'Probably to show off.' Though dejectedly Kara before kneeling to Konohamaru's level.

"Konohamaru, are you alright?" She asked the little boy, healing chakra coming forth to soothe the skin of his neck.

"Hai." Replied the little boy, his voice a bit sore.

"You'll be alright." The green eyed girl smiled, stopping the flow of light green chakra "If you want you can drink hot milk with a bit of honey to sooth your throat and voice."

"Cool!" exclaimed Moegi "You are a medic nin! That's mean you are powerful!"

"Not powerful." Corrected gently Kara "I just have a good chakra control and a good discipline."

"I hate kids like you." Sneered the boy, taking off the big…thing off his back "Who think they know everything."

"Hey!" exclaimed the girl, looking worried "You're going to use Karasu?"

The name intrigued Kara, the thing on his back had a name? If so it must be powerful to have earned the right of a name.

"Kankuro." Suddenly called a cold monotone voice "Stop."

Surprised, they all turned to see a boy hanging down a tree branch. He looked a bit younger than Kara or Naruto. He had a tattoo like thing on his head featuring the kanji for love and dark thick ring around his eyes.

'Love.' Though, Kara, looking at the kanji and his frozen jade eyes 'But only love for himself.'

"You're a disgrace for our village." The red head added, looking coldly at the boy named Kankuro "Why do you think we came all the way here to Konoha?"

"G-Gaara." The boy stuttered, smiling nervously "These guys started it."

Kara was almost tempted to snort. What a coward this guy was, not even able to assume his acts.

"Shut up." Replied the boy with a hint of annoyment (or perhaps anger, Kara wasn't sure) "I'll kill you."

'He'll kill him?' though Kara, bewildered 'But they are of the same village, probably the same team!'

"I was at fault." Said Kankuro, clearly nervous (confirming the red head statement of really killing him) "I'm sorry, I'm really sorry."

"Excuse them." Said Gaara, turning to the Konoha group.

He disappeared in a whirl of sand to reappear on the ground beside Kankuro and the girl.

"Let's go." He said "We didn't come here to fool around."

"Wait." Kara called as they were walking away.

They stopped and turned to her. She began to feel nervous but held her ground to ask:

"What are ninjas from Kaze no Kuni here at Konoha?"

The girl snorted and showed a traffic pass before saying:

"We're here to participate in the chuunin selection exam."

"What the chuunin selection exam?" asked Naruto.

That mention also stimulated Kara's curiosity. She knew that to step from guenin to chuunin, you had to pass a test, but she didn't know what exactly constituted it, nor that other villages were allowed to participate.

"You really know nothing." Said the girl.

"Naruto." Butted in Konohamaru "You can advance from a guenin to a chuunin if you pass the exam."

"Really!" replied Naruto, getting excited "then I should take it too."

Kara sighed at Naruto's cluessness.

"Hey, you there." Interrupted Sasuke, jumping to the ground from his tree branch "Who are you?"

The trio who was walking away again, stopped to turn to him.

"Me?" asked the girl, looking happy to be asked.

"No." said coldly Sasuke "The one next to you with the gourd."

"Gaara of the Desert." Said simply the red head "I'm also interested in you. What's your name?"

"Uchiha Sasuke." Answered coolly the dark head.

Kara sighed, what was this manly show of coolness? This was a bit ridiculous in her opinion.

"Hey, hey, what about me?" suddenly asked Naruto, breaking the tense atmosphere created between Sasuke and Gaara.

Gaara got out of his staring contest and said:

"I'm not interested."

They turned and jumped away.

Kara didn't really saw them leave, a bit busy comforting Naruto.

That of course didn't last long before the blond boy began yelling again at Sasuke.

The group separated soon enough, Sasuke disappearing somewhere and the rest departing again to their promised snack.

But throughout, Kara couldn't help but be worried.

Even though Kankuro was too violent and brash, there was no doubt that he was powerful, as was the girl beside him, obviously.

As for their red haired teamate, he seemed so dangerous that she got shivers just looking at him.

This only proved furthermore that the green eyed girl had a long way to go.

'That's it!' the girl though 'I will use the test seal, then work on my ninjutsu and train even harder on the other subjects.'

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Kara didn't want to be caught using the seal. It would lead to a demanded explanation from her part and probably some investigation.

The brown haired girl didn't want to get involved in the clans, so she kept to herself most of the time. The only one she trusted enough to explain everything was Naruto and recently, Hinata.

So she had to wait around two o'clock in the morning to silently skip to the training ground.

She chose a neutral ground made of planks to draw her seal onto.

It actually took a whole hour for the brown haired girl to draw it. She wanted it to be perfect and she had to create a bigger seal than the ones she drew on sheets of paper for tries.

The seal in itself looked like a windmill wheel with nine wings kept together by an outer circle. In each one she drew intricate designs representative of each element/powers.

When she finished, she put herself in the little centre circle and poured chakra into the seal.

It took more than she predicted, but she was able to activate the seal long enough.

She was happy when she saw the water and air seal glow respectively midnight blue and grey silver. That meant she had a deep connection with these two elements.

Unfortunately the earth seal was only glowing a mild brown and the fire seal was of a red so light it looked pink.

The nature seal's colour was so light that the green looked white, and the golden in the electricity seal was barely visible.

'It looks like I'll have to learn these in the traditional way, with chakra induced ninjutsu.' Though briefly the tired girl before looking at the rest.

The mind seal was only of a lavender colour, but she was happily surprised that the heart seal's colour (pink) was so dark it looked purple and that the soul seal was of a pearl white colour.

But what surprised her the most were the yin and yang seal, which were both equally glowing a pure white and a raven black colour. It meant she was both light and dark, creating a harmony. It was a rare feat.

She briefly though of what her father's reaction would be and sighed mournfully before ending the seal.

The black line dissipated into thin air and she collapsed on her knees, taking sharp intakes of breath.

The seal had really taken more chakra than she expected, but she was happy to have done it at this time of the night. The glowing and all the colours would surely have been noticed immediately.

When she felt a little better, she tried to stand up, only to collapse once again.

'Not good.' She thought, recognising the signs of chakra depletion 'I should have been more careful and brought some chakra pills.'

She felt herself slip into unconsciousness.

Kara groaned slightly before opening slightly her eyes, only to close them again, blinded by the intensity of the light in the room.

She tried again and noticed she was in a hospital room with the characteristic white walls and medicine smell.

She turned her head to the left to see her favourite blond asleep on a chair beside her bead.

She smiled tenderly before slowly sitting, her body aching and still tired.

"I see you're awake." She heard before turning her head.

"Kakashi-sensei." She greeted, seeing her jonin instructor entering her room by the open window.

"I had trouble calming Naruto when we heard you were at the hospital." Her sensei told her "He refused to leave the hospital."

Kara replied nothing, only looked at Naruto with a tender look before turning to Kakashi again.

"While you were out." Continued the white haired man "We talked about the chuunin exam. I assume you know what is it?"

She nodded and he added, getting a form out of his coat:

"I'll give you the possibility to enter it. You have one day to think about it. You don't have to do it if you don't want. But if you sign this sheet, then tomorrow you'll have to head at the place and at the time indicated on this."

Kara nodded and neared her hands from his, lightly touched his wrist while retrieving the sheet.

"Iruka-sensei?" the brown haired girl asked, recognising the familiar chakra "What are you doing walking around with Kakashi-sensei's appearance?"

"I just tested you." Replied her ancient sensei, poofing into normal "The chuunin exam his harsh and unforgiving. One mistake and you can end up dead. Are you sure you can take it?"

"I don't know." Replied Kara after a while, with sincerity and a straight face.

Kara looked as Naruto stirred, waking up.

What Iruka said to her had and still was disturbing her greatly. Was she ready enough for the chuunin exam?

"Kara-chan!" exclaimed the blond head happily, rushing to her side "Are you feeling better?"

"A bit tired but I'm alright, thank you." Smiled the girl.

There was a one sided silence for a while where Naruto talked endlessly for a moment until Kara interrupted him.

"Naruto-kun?" she asked "Are you going to enter the chuunin exam?"

"Of course!" exclaimed the blond.

"And if something goes wrong?" she asked quietly.

"Then I'll figure something out!" replied Naruto "How can I know what will happen if I don't try? Plus I'm the future Hokage, believe it!"

Kara smiled at her friend's optimism. It was so like him.

'But he's right.' She thought 'I cannot hold back everything because I'm afraid. I have to at least try. And a ninja's life is dangerous anyway. The wave mission was a good illustration.'

She decided to try. For her, for Naruto, for her team.

For her parents. For her father.

And if her sensei gave her a form, that meant that she could take this exam, wasn't it?


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter eight

**Kara: And here is a new chapter! The beginning of the chuunin exam! **

**Petitefeeme (trying to get out of a mountain of revision paper): Too much…dates…too much…names…I'm gonna die!**

**Lee: You can't! Youth shall prevail! **

**Gai: Well said Lee! I'm proud of you!**

**Lee (ToT) : Gai-sensei!**

**Gai (ToT): Lee!**

**::The two hug under the sunset::**

**Petitefeeme: …Who made them enter my room?**

**Kara: I have no idea. ::looks suspiciously towards Naruto who whistle innocently:: Nonetheless…red and enjoy!**

"Sasuke." Greeted Kara while Naruto only glared at his rival.

"Hn." Greeted back the raven head in a very Uchiha manner.

The two boys began a staring contest and Kara smiled at the familiarity of the situation.

She was still anxious about the test, but decided to not dwell on it long. She was going to take the test and do her best until she collapsed. Her only regret was that she hadn't had enough time to prepare as she was released just this morning.

Her team began to ascend the stairs but they stopped at the second floor because of a commotion.

Kara noticed two ninja, probably chuunin, blocking a door and beating rather brutally other ninja, this time probably guenin, trying to get in.

The brown haired girl noticed in the mass of guenins Tenten and her team.

So when the girl was hit by one of the chuunin Kara rushed to her side, catching her stumbling form.

"Are you alright?" she asked, worried.

"Kara-san?" asked, surprised, Tenten.

"Nice to see you again." Smiled the green eyed girl "How are you since last time?"

"Fine thanks." Smiled Tenten "Are you also taking the chuunin exam?"

"Yes." She replied before sensing the genjutsu the two chuunins placed disappear.

One of the chuunin moved to attack and Sasuke was about to reply with his own when the bowl haired guy Kara knew was named Lee (he was Tenten's teamate but the girl didn't interact with him that much).

The difference of speed and strength from when he was hit by the chuunins and to now was so wide that Kara instantly knew he was hiding his true abilities and was potentially dangerous (not knowing your opponent's strength was one of the most dangerous situation a shinobi had to face). She only saw him once or twice yelling with his look alike sensei about running and doing push ups.

If he applied this strategy, then his teamates were certainly using it too, but Kara had more informations on them than Lee. She knew that Tenten was a weapon specialist and Neji was a Hyuuga (so he had to fight with his clan style) and as Kara had a lot of sparring session with Hinata, she knew how to handle it.

But she didn't want to get too confident so she wouldn't let her guard down.

"Well done Lee." Said Neji exasperatedly "Isn't it you who said we had to take on a low profile?"

"I'm sorry." Apologized the green clad ninja.

Neji ignored him in favour of staring at Sasuke.

"Who are you?" he asked coolly.

Of course Sasuke didn't give him any satisfying answer and they developed an almost immediate disliking (Kara didn't want to use 'hate', it was too strong) toward each other.

"I think it's time to leave." The green eyed girl said to Tenten "We still need to hand out our forms. Good luck for the exam Tenten. Come on guys. Neji-san, Lee-san."

She grabbed a still glaring Sasuke and a very depressed Naruto (because no one wanted to know his name) and began walking away, saying goodbye to Lee and Neji out of politeness.

Of course Neji stayed aloof and Lee waved slightly, smiling his everlasting shiny (and when Kara said shiny, she meant it) smile.

"You know him?" questioned Sasuke, slightly glaring at her.

"Only because he is Hinata's cousin." Kara replied regally, not really affected by his stare "I only talked a few words with him. He's a very quiet boy."

She saw he wanted to ask more but they were interrupted when Lee called them to stop.

"Hey you with your haughtiness." He said "Fight me here and now."

"Now?" asked Sasuke.

"Yes." Replied Lee before jumping down toward us "My name is Rock Lee. I know that you are Sasuke Uchiha issued from a generation of geniuses. I want to know if I am on par with you."

"So you want to know what an Uchiha is capable of?" asked arrogantly Sasuke.

Kara frowned and was about to speak when they were interrupted by Naruto.

"Bushy eyebrows is mine." He stated in a tone of finality.

"I don't want to fight you." Replied Lee "I want Sasuke."

Naruto growled and rushed in before Kara could do anything to stop him.

It all happened really fast. Naruto was about to punch Lee when the bowl haired boy deflected his wrist with a single movement.

Naruto after tried to use his legs but with again a simple graceful movement, Lee sent him spinning to the wall.

"Naruto!" exclaimed Kara, running past Lee to him to see if he was hurt.

But even as she made sure Naruto was alright, she couldn't help but be impressed by Lee's mastery of his movements. No gesture was wasted. He was quick and elegant which demonstrated a high level of taijutsu mastery.

"I'll declare this now." Stated Lee, resuming his position "You cannot defeat me. That is because I'm currently the strongest Konoha guenin."

"Interesting, I accept your challenge." Said coolly Sasuke, smirking ever so slightly (which in Kara's book meant he was really interested into fighting Lee) before rushing forward.

She decided to stop him before things could degenerate.

"Sasuke." She warned "We have 30 minutes left to turn in our applications"

"Don't worry." Sasuke simply replied "It'll only take five minutes."

"But that's also what Naruto said." Kara sighed, seeing him rushing forward again.

'Damn these boys with their overflowing ego and overbearing competitive instinct' she lamented, resigning herself to wait and prepare to run later to not be late.

This time the fight was even shorter than Naruto's and Sasuke got thrown to the ground in a matter of seconds.

Kara was really tempted to just stare at him mouth hanging down so much his speed was great,

but she wanted to be productive so she tried to determine how Lee could be this fast.

The most surprising thing was that Lee went through Sasuke's guard.

It couldn't be chakra, she would have sensed it. But in the same time she couldn't be 100 % sure (she was still a genin after all, even if her training as a medic nin made her sensible to chakra patterns).

She became a bit worried when Sasuke activated his sharingan. From her point of view the boy shouldn't show his cards so early in the exam (it hadn't even begun). It could be used as an element of surprise.

She was even more surprised when Sasuke got thrown back again, even with his sharingan activated.

'This means only one thing.' The green eyed girl though 'Lee didn't use any chakra to get past Sasuke's guard. He achieved this with only his body abilities.'

And Lee confirmed it while the two continued fighting.

Basically Sasuke, with his sharingan, could read Lee's movement, which were only based on his speed and taijutsu capacities. The only problem was that, even if his eyes could see how Lee moved, his body wasn't strong nor fast enough to anticipate Lee's attacks.

Kara began panicking slightly when Lee disappeared to reappear just behind a flying Sasuke before concentrating, his bandages on his left hand coming loose.

But a little plastic windmill, pinned the end of the bandage on the wall and Lee was forced to stop when a big red turtle ordered him to stop.

Sasuke continued to fall and Kara had to run to him to stop a fall that could be bones breaking.

"Let me examine you." She said.

"I don't need your help." Growled Sasuke, trying to stand up.

But the brown haired girl pushed one spot under his ribcage and he hissed in pain.

"Stop being such a baby." Scolded gently Kara while healing him "I'm not gonna blame or laugh at you because you lost. Personally I don't think I could have done better. But try to see the positive sides. You gathered a decent amount of information that could be useful in the future. Moreover, we are a team. I won't let one of my teamates run around with a bruised rib. You could hinder our chances to pass."

She finished and smiled at him.

"And we're friend remember? If I can help you I will."

She helped him stand up before he walked away in slight frustration.

But Kara simply smiled slightly before walking to Naruto who had regained consciousness.

"Ne, ne, Kara-chan." Asked the blond haired boy curiously "Is that turtle bushy eyebrows' sensei?"

She looked at the red turtle with a headband around his neck scolding Lee before replying:

"No Naruto-kun, but he's probably a summon of Lee's sensei."

"But Kara-chan?" he asked again "What's a summon?"

Kara sweatdropped and explained what a summon was until the turtle called for someone.

That's when an older replica of Lee appeared in a…quite unique pose. At that point even Sasuke looked bewildered.

"A more unique bushy eyebrows with a super bowl cut and mega bushy eyebrows." said Naruto.

Lee of course took offence and Kara only sweatdropped.

She, for herself, had already been exposed to the weirdness of those two once or twice while training with Tenten. They even invited her to their 'super training', but when Tenten told her it consisted of running around Konoha at least 1000 time, she politely declined.

But when Gai (it was the name of Lee's sensei if Kara recalled well) punched his student, even Kara jumped at the show of violence.

She cut out the weirdness which was getting weirder with each minute passing (they were now hugging under the sunset, Kara was sure it was a genjutsu of some sort) and began worrying about being too late to turn in their forms.

She was a bit relieved when they began going away, but Naruto called to them.

"Hey!" he yelled "We were still talking!"

"Lee." Kara said tentatively, at the same time wanting to hit Naruto "Are you aware that there isn't any time left to do laps? You have to register for the chuunin exam."

"Oh, lovely angel blossom!" exclaimed Gai, recognising Kara "So you are one of Kakashi's students!"

"Eto…" Kara hesitated "Yes?"

"Is Kakashi alright?"

Sasuke answered yes and asked why.

'Here we go again.' Sighed internally Kara Guy introduced himself as Kakashi's eternal rival.

"Sasuke." Said Lee before walking away "To be honest, I only came here to test my skills. I lied a while ago. The strongest of Konoha genins is in my team. I entered this exam to defeat him. And you're one of my targets as well, so prepare yourself."

Kara was sure Lee wasn't talking about Tenten, so it meant that Neji was more powerful than Lee, which was also a big peace of information. It meant that Neji was stronger than Lee in speed and taijutsu.

But it wasn't that difficult to understand. Hinata once introduced him as the Hyuuga prodigy of their generation. And to achieve the control of their Byakugan, an Hyuuga had to have both speed and total control over their movements and chakra, hence a flawless taijutsu.

Lee disappeared in a cool fashion and Sasuke looked away, glaring at an innocent pillar.

"Looks like the Uchiha clan isn't that great after all. Did you see his hand? He must have trained a lot, more than you actually." Sneered lazily Naruto, giving into his revenge's want.

"Naruto-kun!" Kara scolded him, appalled by his behaviour before turning to Sasuke: "Sasuke…"

She didn't know what to say. Sasuke seemed ready to kill someone and what could she say? He just had a reality check. Outside the academy there were people stronger than him, that was a given for everyone else but him.

And Naruto, even if his tone was mean, was right. The amount of old wounds she saw in that glimpse of a hand proved that Lee must have sweated blood and water to obtain his taijutsu mastery while Sasuke was pampered by fangirls and civilians who looked at him and his last relatives like some semi-gods.

The raven head said nothing, only began walking away with a sombre face and Kara gave one last scold at her best friend before following him, the blond head walking after her with a stubborn look on his face.

::::

Team seven was currently in a room with at least 30 other guenin teams who looked at them like they were the next enemy to annihilate.

'Are we the only ones who are 12 here?' asked internally Kara, wanting to tear up under those scrutinising glares.

Fortunately she was saved by Ino's loud arrival.

"Sasuke-kun!" she exclaimed, jumping on his back with a flirting smile "I've been eagerly waiting for you ever since I heard that I could see you for the first time in a long time!"

Kara sweatdropped, recognising Ino's way. Fortunately Sakura wasn't here so no fight ensued.

"Are you also taking this troublesome exam?" asked Shikamaru in his usual lazy tone, his friend Choji coming up behind him.

He was eating his never ending bag of chips while Shikamaru had an annoyed/tired look on his face. Ino was busy flirting with a very annoyed Sasuke and Kara was tempted to giggle and sweatdrop at the same time when she heard a more familiar voice.

"Hey Kara-chan!" called Kiba, followed by Hinata and Shino.

"Kiba-kun, Hinata-chan, Shino-san." Kara greeted happily, relieved to see familiar faces.

She walked next to Hinata and smiled at the girl.

Hinata threw back her own smile, communicating without words. Yes she was also very nervous about the exam and thanked Kara for her comforting attempt.

While the boys engaged a conversation on who wouldn't lose to who (stupid male pride again), Kara snatched in an expert manner Akamaru from Kiba's head and began to pet him silently, listening more or less to their conversation with Hinata.

"You should quiet down a little." Warned a boy, walking to them "You are the nine rookies that graduated this year? Stop fooling around, this isn't a field trip."

"Who are you to tell us that?" retorted Ino

Kara frowned slightly. On first sight she knew something was off with him. It was like he was the wolf disguised and she the lamb.

He also had this sly expression. All in one, she didn't like him.

"Ne Hinata-chan." She whispered to the shy girl behind her "What do you think of this ninja?"

Even though she liked to trust her instincts, she wasn't someone to judge only with a first impression.

"I d-don't kn-know." Said hesitantly the pale eyed girl "He s-seems a b-bit intim-midating."

Kara's frown accentuated a tiny bit, but she decided to just look out for this strange shinobi.

Together the rookie nine listened to Kabuto's speech. Some informations were precious and Kara put them in a corner of her mind, but for the most she already knew.

Through reading and asking Rin-sensei, she collected quite a number of knowledges.

Basically every hidden village could enter their guenin in the exam. It was held twice a year in a different village with different tests for each one, though there were traditional patterns such as a written and a practical exam with a big tournament in the end.

Kara also understood that this exam was a hidden competition. Like that every country could see which one was the best, which was the weakest and could more or less balance their difference.

The girl was shaken out of her thoughts when Hinata stammered:

"I don't know if I can do this."

She seemed really worried and Kara brought her hands in hers.

"You are not alone." She reassured her "And don't underestimate yourself. Don't forget all the efforts you did to be here now."

Hinata nodded silently to her, a bit relieved and Kiba grinned broadly.

"Yeah don't worry Hinata-chan." He said confidently "You have me, Akamaru and of course Shino with you!"

Hinata and Kara smiled, Hinata's reassured and Kara's longing. What would she give for her team to be like Hinata-chan's. Even if Naruto loved her reciprocally, he was sometimes (coughmostofthetimecough) so occupied with his rivalry with Sasuke and hadn't time for her. And let's not talk about Sasuke. Even if the emo kid's attitude toward her had a bit improved, he still gave her the feeling she was on a team with an iceberg.

She was interrupted in her musing when she saw Naruto trembling beside her.

'He looks like a bomb about to explode.' She though warily 'Either he has a serious reality check, or he is going to…"

"Raaaah! My name is Naruto Uzumaki and I will kick your asses!"

'…say something rash.' She finished sweatdropping.

She didn't have time to react. She barely saw three blurs and the next moment Kabuto had dodged a punch thrown by a male ninja. From Oto judged Kara, seeing his forehead protector.

She was more than surprised when Kabuto's glasses cracked before the boy threw up.

Even if she didn't like him, she went to him and discreetly scanned if he had a serious injury.

She immediately stopped when she recognised the particular chakra network of the guy. This boy was a medic nin, And not a beginner.

'But how could it be.' She asked herself, slightly apprehensive 'A shinobi cannot be of at least jonin level in the medical area and stay a guenin!'

"What are you doing?" asked suddenly Kabuto, giving her a look that made her skin crawl.

"G-gomen." She stuttered in discomfort "I was only worried that the punch the shinobi threw you got you injured."

"Ah, thank you for your concern." He smiled, his attitude radically changing "So you are a medic nin?"

"Only guenin level." She replied, blushing "I am nothing like my sensei."

Kabuto only smiled and got up, leaving Kara with a feeling of nausea.

She felt uneasy to have given him any information on her. She felt like she had given him a weapon against her.

But even if she desperately wanted to trust her instinct, nothing proved that Kabuto was an enemy.

She sighed and was interrupted in her musing by a shinobi who appeared in a puff of smoke in front of the board.

"Calm down now brats!" yelled a man with a quite scary face.

Behind him were a group of shinobi, probably chuunins.

Kara could only gulp in a apprehension.

**Kara: What did you readers think of this chapter? The written exam is going to begin! **

**Petitefeeme ( T_T ) : …Do you think that I should say 'hello' to the examiner and teacher or 'Ave, morturi te salutant'?**

**Kara: Come on! I too have an exam and you don't see me bawling on the floor.**

**Petitefeeme (T_T): I dont BAWL! And during this exam you won't have to (dun dun DUN) speak.**

**Kara (sarcastically): Of course speaking at most twenty minutes is sooo much harder than fighting for your life and facing scary scarred examiners.**

**Petitefeeme (not sarcastic at all): Exactly!**

**Kara: :: Sigh:: Until next chapter…if the author is still alive.**


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter nine

**Petitefeeme: I'M ALIVE ! I probably lost a few months of life due to stress but I'M ALIVE!**

**Hinata: H-How m-much l-longer un-until she g-gets b-back to normal?**

**Kara: She's in a state of post-exam stress. It will take a bit while.**

**Tenten: Read and enjoy, this one is particularly long!**

Kara sat with her paper exam in front of her, distractedly listening to Morino Ibiki as he explained the rules.

She was still bothered by what happened a few moments ago. Kabuto had clearly avoided that punch, so how did he end up vomiting as if the guy had thrown a direct hit at his stomach?

'What is bothering me is that the punch seemed really easy to dodge' she though 'Perhaps too easy in fact.'

So it meant that the punch wasn't meant to make direct impact since the beginning. Therefore the guy must have used something else to make impact.

'But what could it be?' she asked herself 'I didn't see nor hear any air movement. There was no chakra strings connected to his fore arm…'

She stopped her train of thoughts when suddenly she remembered the strange contraption on the Oto nin's arm.

But for the life of her she couldn't tell what it was exactly. She gave up for the moment when she heard the begin signal, planning to research it when she had free time.

She began reading the questions on her paper and frowned. She didn't knew any answers at all, which was surprising since she intensively revised while in the hospital, having nothing better to do.

She re-read the questions to discover she actually knew some parts of the answers here and there.

'But these informations are from a chuunin level book I read for my medic chuunin exam.' She thought, frowning deeper.

Why would the examiners give them questions they knew were too hard for them?

She mused longly, her mind going over everything Morino Ibiki had said to them.

Something wasn't right, why would they only retrieve two points when someone was caught cheating?

'Unless they want us too cheat!' she suddenly thought.

Her eyes widened and she looked at Sasuke to see him, sharingan activated, reproducing someone's movement to answer.

'So that's mean we have to cheat.' She thought, nodding slightly 'After all information gathering is a vital part of a shinobi's activity.'

The question now was how to gather said information, because logically no one seemed to know the answer.

She peaked curiously at the guy at her right to see him scribbling rapidly on his paper.

'But how could he know the answer?' she asked herself 'unless he himself was a chuunin…'

She stopped her thinking to rapidly count the number of guenin sitting in the class.

And she was right, there wasn't the right number of people and she saw a few of them writing quickly and without effort on their paper.

This meant either the man on her right was a chuunin, or he had cheated but either way his answer had to be right.

But now, how was she going to copy his answers on her own paper without being too blatant?

She reviewed all her techniques, slowly formulating a plan.

She looked at the hour. She still had 40 minutes, perfect.

She took a blank sheet and a pen before closing her eyes and drawing a seal.

She opened her eyes and wasn't satisfied. Her circle wasn't well drawn.

She repeated the operation again and again until she could draw the seal perfectly without looking.

She then discreetly got out a needle and plunged it into a little vial containing a special type of poison. It wouldn't kill the guy of course, just make him dizzy for a few minutes (it of course depended on the amount of poison).

She pricked the guy and soon enough he slumped loudly against the table, a hand on his forehead.

"Hey, are you okay?" Kara whispered at him, faking worry.

While doing that she discretely drew the seal under the table with a finger previously dipped in ink.

"Yeah thank you." The guy replied, shaking his head before resuming his writing.

She smiled and sat back to her place.

She drew the same seal on the back of her answer sheet and waited till the guy finished.

He turned his paper and Kara discreetly activated the seal.

Answers appeared on her sheet and she smiled slightly in contentment.

She wrote her name on her sheet and waited.

She looked at Sasuke. He seemed fine so she diverted her eyes to Naruto and cringed slightly.

The boy was panicking, obviously not knowing what to do.

'Did he understand that he had to cheat?' asked herself worriedly the brown haired girl.

::0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o::

"Now for the tenth question." Announced Ibiki "There is one new rule. First, you will have to chose if yes or no you want to answer this question. If you choose not, you and your team fail."

Ibiki paused, letting the stress go up and the tension rise "But, if you choose to answer and are incapable of answering, you will never have the right to pass this exam again."

"But there are a lot of people re-passing the exam!" yelled Kiba "How's that possible?"

Kara silently agreed with him. How could so much people re-pass the exam if those one who couldn't answer lost their right to pass the exam?

Ibiki simply chuckled (which make Kara's gulp uncomfortably)

"Unfortunately, this year, I make the rules." He said with a hint of sadism piercing in his voice "This is why I'm giving you the choice. Those who can't assume can try again next year."

There was tense silence before someone decided to give up.

This opened the path to a flurry of raised hand. One after one, team after team, a little crowd of people got out of the class.

Kara felt like she couldn't breathe anymore. She really wasn't sure that she could answer the tenth question. What would happen if she stayed guenin for the rest of her life? She would break her promise she made to her father, the promise to get stronger.

She desperately wanted to raise her hand, but what would Sasuke and Naruto say? At this moment she wished she had their arrogant assurance.

She saw Naruto raise his hand and smiled sadly.

She was surprised when he slapped it loudly on his table, his voice ferocious when he yelled at Ibiki:

"You think I'm afraid? I'll never give up! I'll answer your stupid question and even if I'm wrong, I'll become Hokkage!"

'Naruto.' Thought affectionately Kara, a tear slipping from her eyes.

Her doubts were swept aside now. Naruto was right. What sort of ninja would she make if she backed away at each slight difficulty? And she certainly could become strong, even if she stayed stuck ads a guenin. Rank wasn't everything.

There was another long silence before Ibiki simply said:

"All the guenins here pass."

Kara stayed a moment frozen, before letting out a big sigh and slumping back in her chair.

She listened to Ibiki's speech, nodding from time to time.

She was right for the first part of the exam, it was about collecting informations. She also understood the importance of valuable information gathering.

And though she didn't agree wholly with Ibiki, she understood the choices confronted by chuunins and even higher graded ninja. She also valued the will of never giving up (one of the many things she admired in Naruto).

She barely noticed her presence as the second examiner entered, broking a window and hiding Ibiki behind a curtain.

"My name is Anko Mitarashi and I am your second examiner" yelled the woman.

::::

"Wah!" yawned Naruto, stretching "I'm going home, you're coming Kara-chan?"

"Not yet." Replied the green eyed girl "I need to do something first. I'll buy dinner. I suppose you want ramen?"

The goofy smile on Naruto's face answered for her and she chuckled before waving her brother figure goodbye.

She walked to the Uchiha compound and knocked.

It was Itachi who answered.

"Excuse me for disturbing you but I wanted to thank you for your help. Apparently you were the ones that found me unconscious at the training ground."

It wasn't that difficult to find out. The moment Kara asked the question, the nurses began squealing about two gorgeous Uchiha hot pieces, one holding her bridal style.

She had thanked them and discreetly tip toed away.

"Hn." He simply replied, looking coldly at her.

"Well." She replied, sweatdropping "I'll be taking my leave now. Thanks again."

She needed some training to handle better her needles, which needed to precisely touch a certain nerve point to be really effective, and she also had to prepare for her chuunin medic exam (there was a mountain of scrolls waiting for her at home).

Even now she was still a bit uncomfortable talking with Itachi Uchiha. Something about his aura perturbed her greatly.

She squeaked when she was scooped in a bear hug by Shisui.

"How's my princess!" he exclaimed happily.

"Shisui!" exclaimed angrily the girl, feeling the dirt and even the dried blood pass from the Uchiha to her.

"Sorry princess." Apologized the boy, putting her down.

Kara frowned at him, her lips almost forming a pout when she noticed his bandaged arms.

"What happened?" she asked, entering medic mode and taking his arm in her hands, unrolling the bandage swiftly.

"It's nothing really." Tried Shisui "A simple cut. It'll heal in no time."

"No time really?" replied sarcastically Kara while scanning the deep cut "There isn't any clotting and it's bordering on infection. Do you want your arm severed?"

"Err…no?" answered tentatively the boy.

"Then I suggest you to stop fidgeting."

Shisui almost immediately stopped moving and Kara got out of her medical pouch a little clip.

She got all the spinsters of wood out of the wound, removing the one lodged on an artery before immediately healing the fatal wound.

She asked if they could get inside to clean the wound and once seated in she applied an ointment made of camomile and aloe vera before putting a fresh bandage.

"Please put this each morning with a fresh band." She asked Shisui, handing him the ointment "I'll take my leave now."

She bowed politely before getting out of the house, waving to a still surprised Shisui.

'It's a chance I made a batch of camomile and aloe vera three months ago' Kara though 'Like that I don't have to take any medicine from the hospital.'

::::

'They aren't ninja, they're all mental cases' grumbled mentally Kara after witnessing Anko Mitarashi cutting Naruto's cheek and the female grass ninja with her endless tongue 'If everyone become like that when they go up the grade ladder, I think I wanna stay guenin."

She moved to let the grass kunoichi pass and froze completely when their hands brushed together.

She felt suddenly cold and watched.

'Like a prey pursued by the predator' she thought, trying to find a comparison.

She felt a bit the same with Gaara of the desert, but with this woman, even if it was a fleeting sensation, it left her trembling and wanting to run very far away.

'This woman is extremely dangerous.' Kara thought 'How could a guenin make me feel like that, and it was just a finger.'

"A-Are y-you o-ok K-Kara-ch-chan?" asked her Hinata, worried.

"Hinata?" whispered Kara, hugging herself to bring some heat "Could you promise me something?"

"O-Of c-course." Smiled the shy girl.

"Please." Asked Kara, insisting on the world to show her best friend how important it was for her "Don't go after them, whatever the reason be."

She pointed to Gaara and the grass kunoichi's team.

"I have a very bad feeling about them." The green eyed girl finished in barely a whisper.

"O-Ok." Whispered Hinata, taking Kara's hand to reassure her.

The two girls stayed like that until Anko finished her explanation.

Kara waved goodbye to Hinata before jumping in a tree to read her paper.

She grimaced at some explicit explanation (apparently she couldn't blame anyone if she lost a limb) before reflecting on everything that was told.

'This situation had the potential to become an open war.' The girl thought darkly, looking at the team under her branch 'Basically, everyone is an enemy.'

There was also the problem of food, stress management and survival skills. Fortunately Kara knew most of the edible or non edible plants in the fire country (it was an obligatory knowledge for her chuunin medic exam), but for the fauna, she had no idea what was awaiting them beyond those wire nettings.

They had five days, and if they failed, they still had to stay minimum five days in the forest of death. The situation would become stressful the moment they'll enter it. Heck, Kara was already beginning to feel nervous!

Thus stress management would be essential. They couldn't rush in and hope like ::sigh:: Naruto probably would do. They would have to carefully plan their course of action. Thus the survival skills (finding a good resting place, building a fire without smoke, all of those knowledges were essential).

'There is also the problem of collecting informations.' Kara thought while looking at the examiners who were putting a curtain around the table where they would receive their scroll. 'Knowing who had which scroll is important. There is also going to be more than half of the teams failing this exam.'

There was after all the possibility of a team collecting more than one scrolls, or for a scroll to be destroyed.

'There are a lot of possibilities.' Though darkly Kara 'Too much for my taste.'

::::

"I think we need to build up a plan first." Stated Kara "And I'm not comfortable here. We're too exposed. Anyone can sneak an attack on us."

"Hn." Sasuke nodded "What do you have in mind?"

"Well, first the enemy will probably underestimate us because we're young." Answered Kara thoughtfully "So I say we lure them into a false sense of superiority and steal their scroll. What do you think?"

Sasuke was about to reply but at that moment Naruto, who had walked a bit away to relieve himself walked in.

"That was good!" he yelled "So, what are we doing now?"

He wasn't prepared for Sasuke's punch.

He crashed against the tree and barely dodged the kunais sent by Kara.

"Hey guys!" he yelled panicked, dodging the two's kicks "What are you doing? It's me Naruto!"

"For your information Naruto is right handed." Said Kara "Now tell me where is he?"

"And where is the cut the examiner inflicted on Naruto before the start of the exam?" smirked Sasuke "What have you done with our teamate?"

"I didn't know you would notice details like that." Said the ninja, transforming back "Now give me your scroll!"

Kara backed away while Sasuke jumped in the air, forming hand seals before shooting little fireballs at him.

While he was distracted, dodging the fireballs, Kara went him a flurry of kunais that unfortunately only nicked him.

He began running away, the two hot on his heels when they saw Naruto struggling on the ground.

"Go after him." Said quickly Kara before jumping down "I'll help Naruto."

Sasuke nodded briefly before sprinting after the enemy ninja.

"Come quick." She said to the blond haired boy "Sasuke need us. The ninja's team could be near."

They got to Sasuke just in time to see him at the mercy of the ame ninja. Naruto threw a kunai while Kara immediately jumped in his escape trajectory.

She inserted medical chakra in her fingertips and hit his arms which slumped against his body, unmoving.

"You bitch!" the ninja snarled, not seeing Sasuke coming behind him to stab him.

Naruto went up to punch him harshly and he crashed against a tree before disappearing.

::::

The wind attack took Kara totally by surprise. She didn't have the time to dodge fully and was blown away.

She took out a kunai and pushed it in the bark of a branch.

She resisted for a few minutes before the wind died down.

She pulled out her kunai and observed her surrounding. There was a thick forest and judging the position of the sun, she was blown north-east from their position.

She jumped away to avoid kunais and noticed the two guenins accompanying the creepy grass kunoichi.

"Look Banten." Said sarcastically one of them "The little girl is lost."

"Why don't we play a bit with her." Said the other, getting out a few kunais "I'm bored anyway."

'Shimata!' thought urgently Kara, analyzing quickly the situation.

And it was bad for her. She was alone against two men that surpassed her in strength, number, age and probably techniques and experience.

So, she did the only logical thing to do.

She threw them a smoke bomb before running away.

But even that proved to be useless as they were faster than her. They were literally playing with her, making her dodge and change direction whenever they wanted.

'I'm getting nowhere.' Thought angrily Kara 'Those guys are better than me on every level.'

The only option left was to outsmart them.

Kara reviewed quickly all the tools in her possession and formulated a plan.

She let the ninja kick her in a tree, hissing quietly when she felt the punch in her ribs.

She feigned unconsciousness.

"Already?" Sneered one of the guys, taking her arm harshly to shook her a bit "I'm disappointed. Konoha shinobis are really weak."

"Perhaps we could tie her and play with her when she wakes up." Suggested the other with a hint of sadism in his tone.

Before they could react, Kara had blown a powder in their face.

They took a step backwards and Kara took the opportunity to hide in the thick foliage of the trees, hiding carefully her chakra.

"Where is she!" yelled one of them.

It took only a few minutes before they collapsed, panting heavily.

Kara smirked in victory (Sasuke was really rubbing on her). The powder she used was a toxin eliminating every trace of glucose in an organism. So basically they were suffering from hypoglycaemia, only ten times worse than a normal one, and it would take at least ten minutes for the body to restore enough forces for them to move, judging on their corpulence.

She searched for a scroll but found none, so the green eyes eyed girl focused on finding her teamates.

She came in just in time to see the creepy grass ninja's neck lengthen toward Sasuke.

"No!" she yelled, throwing a paper bomb with a few kunais.

She pushed her legs to their limit to grab Sasuke, pick up Naruto hanging down a tree and run as fast as she could.

She vaguely saw black blurs and noticed briefly Anko passing by them towards the opposite direction, but she stayed focused.

They almost crashed in a clearing when Kara felt Sasuke faint behind her.

'Dammit not now!' she though angrily.

She caught Sasuke just in time before putting the two boys down in the hollow of a tree.

She scanned Sasuke rapidly with her medical chakra. She sighed in relief, there was nothing serious apart from a slight chakra exhaustion and too much stress.

But what she discovered with Naruto worried her. All of the boy's chakra pathways had been shut down. It was probably temporary but Kara didn't know how much time it would take for the pathways to open again and for the boy to restore enough chakra.

She wasn't familiar with this type of sealing, having only studied the most basic ones (except the ones she learned from her clan book of course), so she could only hope he would recover fast.

She built a small fire, set up traps and resigned herself to wait patiently.

She stayed up the whole night, walking in circle from time to time to stay awake.

The sun went up and the two boys still didn't wake.

She was redoing her hairs when she heard some rustles in the bushes.

She picked a kunai and tensed only to see a squirrel jumping in the clearing.

She relaxed slightly until she observed more carefully its behaviour.

Her lessons with Hana weren't useless. This squirrel wasn't behaving like a normal one.

I walked up to the squirrel and noticed an exploding tag on his back.

'That's mean someone is near.' She though, deactivating quickly the tag before it exploded and the poor squirrel with it 'Damn it, that's mean I was too exhausted to feel them.'

This fact extremely worried her. Yes her chakra reserves were ok, but she was too tired to use it properly.

"You should sleep." Said a boy, entering the clearing with his team "Go away little girl, we want to fight Sasuke."

Kara recognised the oto ninja with the weird attacks she still wasn't able to decipher.

One of them stepped forward, activated a trap and a flurry of kunai flew to them.

One of the boys did hand signs and suddenly all the weapons thrown stopped.

But this time, Kara heard distinctly the wave of attack.

'So they're using sound waves in their attack, interesting concept.' She though 'But that will make it harder for short range attack.'

"I'll take care of her." Sneered one of the boys. He seemed the brasher and more violent of the two.

He jumped toward Kara, fast, with his fist brought back, ready to punch.

'My chance!' realised the girl, also bringing back her stretched hand and crouching slightly, waiting for her moment.

Fighting regularly with Hinata, Kara became interested in chakra and nerve point alike. This, mixed with her medical training, she developed her own taijutsu technique alike.

It allowed her to numb the chakra and/or nerves networks and only another medical nin could undo her work.

The only problem was that it took so much chakra from her that she had only one try.

'Now." She though, seeing an opening.

She jumped as hard as she could, crashing into the enemy and stabbing his torso with her glowing fingertips around the heart area.

The boy slumped on the ground and Kara immediately used the surprise of the others to her advantage.

She punched the girl into a tree and threw a few needles to paralyze her momentarily.

She didn't have time to dodge the sound punch the last ninja sent her.

She engaged into a taijutsu spar with him, but she wasn't advantaged. She had to completely avoid his punch.

Even cautious she was still hit a few times, but she thanked Hinata for their sparring sessions, as well as her medic training. Without them she wouldn't be this skilled and fluid with her taijutsu.

She threw a smoke bomb and creates a bushin before hiding carefully in a tree above them.

'I have to neutralize his arms.' She though, taking out needles.

She threw them but unfortunately the ninja avoided them before sending her another wave attack.

She wasn't quick enough and was thrown back to her teamates. She tried to stand up but found that in her fall she had sprained her ankle.

'Damn it to hell!' she yelled in her mind 'This is totally not the moment!'

She tried to stand up again, trying to balance herself in one foot.

The ninja chuckled darkly before sprinting forward to probably kill her.

She got out a kunai and prepared to block, though her hope were low. But she would be damned if she didn't protect her unconscious teamates till her last breath!

The ninja was about to punch her when he was suddenly thrown back brutally by a black blur.

"Sasuke" whispered Kara, seeing her teamate well and on his feet before her own slipped.

He caught her before she could land on the ground and put her against a tree.

"Are you alright?" he asked. Kara could almost sense a glimpse of worry in his voice.

"Don't worry about me." I answered "And more about the sound ninja. He utilise sound attack with his arm. Be careful and avoid completely his attacks. Are you alright?"

"I'm in better condition than you." He smirked.

Kara caught the humour and answered:

"Let's see how you'll be when you'll have to defend your unconscious teamates against three skilled ninjas."

"Sasuke Uchiha." Interrupted the ninja "Glad to see you're awake. It will be much funnier to kill you with your eyes open."

Sasuke turned to him and soon they were happily punching each other, oblivious to what was around them.

'Boys' sighed internally Kara before limping to her bag pack.

She got out a chakra pill, a present from Rin-sensei (she had tried to create her own pills but she just couldn't get the proportions right). She gulped it down and focused on healing her ankle as much as she could.

Fortunately it wasn't broken and soon she stopped and put on a cool pack before tending to her others injury.

She put arnica ointment on the bruised skin of her torso where she had been kicked earlier and wrapped a bandage tightly around it. Fortunately the weapons used by the sound ninjas weren't poisoned and her cuts were minor.

She checked on Naruto to see that….he was sleeping, snoring slightly.

'That's mean he is recovering faster than I though.' Kara happily though, checking his chakra pattern to see that they opened up again.

'I should wake him now.' She though, feeling his chakra flowing without a hitch beneath her fingertips.

She glanced at Sasuke, sharingan activated, who seemed fine handling the oto shinobi.

"Naruto-kun." She called to the blond boy, shaking him lightly.

The boy only groaned and turned around, mumbling about five more minutes.

She noticed Sasuke and the oto ninja's disappearance, though she still could feel their chakra none too far away.

She called louder, shaking the blond haired boy harder, but she still got the same results.

She sighed in exasperation before an idea came.

"The ramen stand is on fire!" she yelled near his ear.

Her brother like figure immediately sprung to life, tripping in his cover and landing flat on his face before noticing her presence.

"Kara-chan!" he yelled "Go get the water; I'll save what I can!"

Kara stopped him before he could dart away.

"Naruto-kun." She said calmly "We're in the middle of the chuunin exam. We need to get to Sasuke, he might need our help."

It took some time to reassure the blond that there was no ramen stand on fire, then to explain that he had to carry her. Even if she healed the majority of her ankle, it was still sore and she couldn't put it on the ground.

Eventually Naruto told her to climb on his back and with his own bag on his stomach, he ran trough the bushes, following Kara's indications.

Unfortunately, the girl couldn't help but feel extremely tired after all that happened and before she could say something, she was sleeping soundlessly, her head on Naruto's shoulder.

Naruto noticed and smiled softly, soon landing next to Sasuke and a beaten up sound ninja.

"What's up?" he asked calmly, which for him was the equivalent of whispering.

"I got a scroll." Smirked the raven haired boy before looking at the girl on Naruto's back

"Is she ok?"

"She probably looked after us all night long." Said the blue eyed boy with a tender voice "She must be tired."

"Hn." Agreed Sasuke "And she fought against two of the three sound ninjas."

"SHE DID WHAT!" yelled Naruto, surprised.

**Kara: We hope you enjoyed this chapter!**

**Tenten: And next time, if she get good grades, the authors gonna post two chapters! So we better cheer her on.**

**Hinata: Y-Yeah! Un-Until n-next ch-chapter!**


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter ten

**Petitefeeme: Wooohooo! I got my exams! I got my exams! I got my exams! I got…**

**Kara: How long do you think she's gonna do that?**

**Tenten: I don't know dear. As promised, two chapters this day. **

**Kara: read and enjoy!**

Kara listened distractedly as the Hokage explained the rule of the preliminaries, glancing from time to time at Kabuto.

The man perplexed her greatly. She had to recognise that he was smart and talented. He even helped them get their second scroll, and without him they wouldn't have went this far (heck, Naruto would have been dead). During their partnership he was the epitome of politeness and even she had to admit he made a good teamate.

So why couldn't she shake off the feeling that something wasn't right?

She felt his gaze on her numerous time, and saw him scrutinize her teamates like an hawk when he though she couldn't see him. His gaze gave her shivers, he looked positively predatory.

And there was that time when they got attacked by those ame ninjas. They had gathered around Kabuto before stepping back suddenly, frightened.

'This boy is surrounded by mystery.' Though Kara.

Indeed, how could he have taken seven times the test and still failed, as skilled as he was?

She was startled out of her thoughts by the proctor, whose name she learned was Hayate Gecko, who began explaining the preliminaries.

"Let's make it easier" the coughing man said "The preliminaries are beginning now. Those who wish to give up can. It will not affect your team."

There was a tense silence before Kabuto raised his hand.

"Excuse me." He said with an apologetic smile "I wish to give up."

'Nani?' though Kara, bewildered.

"Kabuto!" yelled Naruto "Why are you giving up?"

"Sorry Naruto, but since I received the punch from the Oto Nin, I cannot hear from my left ear. Fighting in this condition isn't possible."

Kabuto only waved before walking away.

Kara was quite perplexed. During their partnership she didn't detect any behaviour showing he couldn't hear with his left ear, but unfortunately she couldn't be 100 % sure without a medical check out.

'This is really weird.' She though 'When I checked him briefly at the first exam I didn't detect any problem.'

She was forced to forget her train of thoughts when Hayate began explaining again.

She waited for the names to appear and became worried when she saw one of her teamates' name.

"Be careful." She whispered to Sasuke "You're almost out of chakra. If you use it again you may collapse."

She wished she had brought more chakra pills (they had used them all to recover after the sound ninjas' attack), but the raven haired boy just threw her a smirk before advancing to the proctor.

Kara rolled her eyes at what seemed to be Uchihas' pride and climbed up the stairs with Naruto and Kakashi.

She leaned against the railing and took out a notebook with a pen.

She didn't have a lot of memories with her father, but the few she had she treasured them.

One of them was the advice he gave her when she was still a little girl.

"_You see sweetheart, your enemies won't walk up to you and tell you their strong and weak points. This is why you have to use any occasion, even the tiniest one, to gather any information you can. Some would appear useless at the moment. But perhaps later you can use them at your advantage."_

She also learned that ninja techniques weren't taught if you just asked nicely (she doubted Kakashi-sensei would teach her his 'thousand birds' technique if she asked, even nicely). This is why she was going to note every technique she saw. That might give her ideas to create her own techniques and like that she would be prepared if she was to fight against them.

::::

Sasuke's battle filled one page of Kara's notebook. She wrote about Yoroi's chakra stealing technique and draw Sasuke's newfound technique 'shishi rendan'.

She described every fight with accuracy, describing techniques and tactics, drawing when necessary. Some of the information were pretty useless (she couldn't fight with bugs for example), but she knew these informations would come in handy sometimes.

Her mind was already making plans as how she could use the techniques she saw with her own style (she couldn't wait to try to make chakra strings or things that could appear only with her chakra for examples).

She was disturbed from her writing by Kakashi who put his hand on her shoulder.

"Look at the board." He simply said.

She complied and saw her name. She was going to fight against Ino.

"Good luck Kara-chan!" yelled Naruto.

The girl smiled and closed her book, sealing it with light sealing seal (the only one she had mastered for the moment) before walking down the stairs to face Ino who was smirking.

"I will defeat you in no time little girl." She said, taunting.

Kara took no notice of it and went into a fighting stance.

She knew Ino's special jutsu to take one's mind and body. So her principal problem would be to avoid being possessed. She also knew from memories that Ino had a good punch. She couldn't let the blond reach her right side as it was still sore (a punch she knew could result into a broken ribs).

"Begin!" the proctor announced.

Ino dashed forward, but Kara was ready.

Ino had made half of the way to her when she threw a smoke bomb.

The entire arena was filled with smoke and Kara create one bushin before hiding herself with a light genjutsu she (secretly) copied from Kabuto when they were in the forest of death (it was a bit daring and she knew she couldn't hold the illusion long, but she was happy to succeed at the first try).

She knew she couldn't let the fight drag on for long. She had little chakra left and couldn't afford using another jutsu.

She made her clone fight and waited.

When she saw Ino make the familiar hand sign of her clan jutsu, she knew she couldn't have another opportunity.

When she saw that Ino was fully concentrated on her technique, she threw a few senbons that paralysed her.

Kara caught her gently before she could hit the ground and told her, knowing that the blond could hear her:

"It will only last a few minutes don't worry."

She carefully removed her senbons and let the medic Nins take her away.

"Winner Kara Tashio." Said the proctor, motioning at her to leave the battle ground.

"That was awesome!" yelled Naruto, hugging her.

"I'm proud of you." Simply said Kakashi, patting her head.

"Arigato." Blushed prettily the girl, not used to receive such compliments.

::::

Kara stood beside Naruto, listening to the Hokage's speech.

After her own fight she continued taking notes of her friends fight.

She couldn't help but be tense during Naruto's fight with Kiba. She felt like punching the brown haired boy when he began insulting Naruto, clearly underestimating him, but in the same time Kiba was her friend, so she felt a bit guilty when she felt happy when Naruto won.

She yelled with Naruto during Hinata's fight with her cousin. When she was able to land a few hit on her cousin that left him hissing in pain, she felt extremely proud of her and her newfound resolve.

Unfortunately at the end Neji had hit her heart and Kara stayed beside her best friend until the medic nin took her away, promising her to visit soon.

Even if Neji at the moment made her blood boil in anger, she couldn't help but feel pity for the imprisoned boy he was.

Hinata confided the dream of a united Hyuuga clan without any curse mark to her one time. Kara new Hinata would never blame her cousin even if he tried to kill her (which she suspected had actually tried to do during the fight), more like pity him. She decided to honour her friend.

She cried when Lee fought against Gaara. She was one of the first near him to check him up.

What she found made her cry even more. Most of his muscles were ripped and his bones were not in their best form either. But what worried her the most were his left arm and leg, literally crushed.

What the medic nin said confirmed her thoughts, Lee would never be a ninja ever again.

Before she buried her face in Naruto's shoulder, seeking comfort, she met Gaara's eyes.

What she saw mixed her growing anger with pity. He looked completely lost, as if not able to understand the love bounding two people together.

It looked like he had never experienced any type of love before.

"Please take a piece of paper from this box." Asked Anko, interrupting Kara's thoughts.

After some tense moments they were finally released for one whole month.

Naruto was long gone, yelling something like having to question Kakashi-sensei, leaving his sister figure to walk home alone.

While making a detour for grocery shopping, Kara was already planning her training.

The most important thing was to find a way to defeat her opponent, Kankuro of the desert.

She knew very little of him, apart that he was a puppeteer.

'I'll have to do some research.' She thought remembering an old saying that to defeat an enemy, you had to think like him.

She entered the grocery store, still deep in though.

She also wanted to train to improve her taijutsu. With what she saw during the first two part of the exam, she had some ideas.

As for her ninjutsu and genjutsu, she wanted to unlock at least the water seal to train a bit, and perhaps train a bit with genjutsu, though she didn't had a lot of idea on this one.

And let's not forget her chuunin medic exam that was in one week!

She sighed, feeling overwhelmed, reaching for some instant noodles for Naruto until a hand beat her to it.

"Yo." Simply said Kakashi, putting the cup in her basket.

"Kakashi-sensei." Greeted Kara "What are you doing here?"

"I found you a sensei to supervise your training." Smiled the white haired jonin "I want you to meet him at Konoha's park in an hour."

Being trained by someone she didn't know didn't sit well with Kara.

"Kakashi-sensei." She asked hesitantly "Is it really necessary? I can train alone you know."

"I know that you don't like new people and you would rather train alone." Sighed her teacher "But trust me, you'll like her."

'It's a woman?' though surprised Kara.

But she didn't have time to question her sensei further, for he had already disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Kara sighed and finished her shopping before paying and heading home. She didn't have a lot of time.

::::

"Hana-chan!" exclaimed Kara, happily surprised when she saw her friend standing at the meeting point "You're my new sensei."

"Yep!" exclaimed back the brown haired woman "Kakashi was asking around and I volunteered when I heard your name. Plus I have some experience of puppeteers."

"Really?" replied happily "Thanks that would surely help me a lot!"

Hana led Kara to a clearing and they began planning.

"Puppeteers are quite sneaky." Began explaining Hana, scratching one of her dogs "They can hide everything into their puppets from gas to weapon. Against them what you have to work on is your ability to detect the chakra strings. Once you know where is the puppeteer, you can attack him."

Kara nodded, concentrating on her while petting one of Hana's dog who whined for attention.

"But it isn't that easy." Continued the woman "A puppeteer will use numbers against you, since a good one can manipulate a hundreds of puppets at the same time. I don't expect your opponent to of course, but he might use one or two. So we will have to work on your speed and time reaction."

"I thought also of learning how to make chakra strings." Tried Kara, unsure.

"That's an excellent idea!" approved Hana "You're on the right path girl. A good ninja have to know its enemy."

She got up from her sitting position and smirked, sending shivers down Kara's back.

"Shall we begin?" Hana asked, getting out a kunai.

"S-Sure." Smiled nervously Kara, feeling like she made a pact with the devil itself.

::::

"And this is why I train with Hana for five hours straight each day." Finished Kara "Each day she make me dodge her, her weapons and her dogs, and I have to run so that they can't reach me. Then she make me detect chakra with a sort of hide and seek game, using as little chakra as possible. Then I have to master chakra strings and to know how to cut and use them efficiently."

"I-Impressive." Smiled Hinata.

"I wish you were out of the hospital." Smiled back Kara "I miss our daily spar."

"M-Me too." Said mournfully Hinata "And h-how is your 'o-other' training?"

They decided to call 'other' training, exercises including her bloodline limit."

"I'll soon open the water seal." Said proudly Kara "Apart from that I'm trying to develop my own taijutsu technique and I practise some genjutsu."

"A-And about your chuunin medic exam?" asked Hinata

"Well…" trailed Kara, smiling mischievously "You have in front of you a newly appointed chuunin medic."

"W-Wonderful K-Kara-chan." Exclaimed happily the blue haired girl "I'm h-happy for you."

"Arigato." Smiled Kara.

There was a silence before Hinata got the courage to ask:

"A-And h-how is N-Naruto?"

Kara smiled, seeing her best friend playing with her finger as a nervous gesture, before explaining:

"He is training with an old hermit he calls a pervert. From what I understood he is one of the three legendary sanins."

"R-Really?" asked Hinata, surprised.

"Hai." Nodded Kara "I met him once while bringing Naruto his bento he forgot. The moment he saw me the old man began fussing around me, saying something about an angel. I didn't really understand and the moment after Naruto was yelling something like paedophile at him."

Hinata giggled. Kara smiled and joined her until the door slid open to let enter a nurse.

"Tashio-san." She said "We cannot allow you to see Hinata-sama any longer. The girl need to rest."

"I understand." Smiled Kara, standing up before turning to Hinata.

"I hope you will get better soon." She said "I'll see you later."

Hinata nodded and waved at her best friend before closing her eyes.

::::

It was two in the morning. Kara walked at the centre of the lake.

She chose a waterfall because as her clan book said, the more water the better.

She breathed deeply before going through a series of handsign and activating the seal.

It expanded, glowing a soft blue colour. Kara's hairs moved softly around her as she did the last hand seal.

"Water seal: release!" she exclaimed.

The seal spun wildly, the glowing getting brighter.

Kara felt something snap in her and she felt raw power rush through her vein. It was so powerful it was almost painful.

Water around her sprung to life, forming a column around her.

She felt it, this connection. It was something wonderful and powerful at the same time.

She was the water, and the water was her. She suddenly felt happy and laughed, tears of happiness flowing from her eyes.

She felt whole.

With a last caress the water settled back, and suddenly very tired, Kara had barely the time to get to the bank before collapsing on her butt.

But this time she was ready. She took out a chakra pills and swallowed it, immediately feeling better, if not slightly tired.

She sighed in happiness. She could still feel the connection. She grazed her fingers on the water, and felt it ripple underneath them, responding.

She smiled before getting out her i-pod and walking back at the centre of the pound.

To exercise her control over water, her clan book had a simple yet ultimately complicated exercise.

It was dancing.

While moving, you had to make the water follow your movements. For that you had to be perfectly synchronized with it. You had to be fluent yet in complete control of your movement, exactly like water.

The music began playing, Kara began dancing. The water around her sprang to life, following perfectly her moves.

She felt at peace.

::::

"Is he awake?" asked Kara, poking her head inside of the hospital room.

"Sorry, no." replied lazily Shikamaru.

Kara sighed, the third part of the exam was tomorrow and Naruto was still sleeping.

"Thanks for looking after him Shikamaru." Smiled the girl.

"No problem." Smirked the black haired boy, moving a piece across the shoji board "I have nothing better to do."

'How about training?' thought the girl, dumbfounded.

She shrugged the thought off and announced:

"I'll go visit Lee-san."

"Hm." Grumbled the Nara, letting her close the door.

Kara walked to Lee's room and entered to find Gaara beside the boy's bed.

Her first instinct was to run very far away, but she pushed it down and smiled at him before walking to the bed.

While putting the alium she brought in a vase, she peeked up at the red head's jade eyes.

'So lonely.' She thought sadly, deciding to try to start a little conversation.

"You know you remind me of Naruto." She said, sitting on a stool near the bed.

His eyes fixed on her; those cold jade eyes that made her feel like a prey.

"I met him at the orphanage." She continued bravely "I remember like it was yesterday. He was alone in the corner of the class, trying to read a book."

She smiled tenderly at the memory.

"I've seen him before, trying to get noticed by goofing around and yelling. But he would always get punished and the teachers would tell us he was a monster. That he would hurt us should we go near him."

She turned to look at the blue sky outside, memories rushing forward in her head.

"But every time I would look at him, I couldn't see the monster they were talking about. All that I could see were those lonely blue eyes looking enviously at the children playing ball, flinching in deep sadness every time someone would send him a hateful glare."

"I neared him and proposed to play with him." She laughed lightly "He was so surprised and the moment after he smiled so brightly I though I announced him that he was the new king of the world."

She calmed, still smiling: "We became fast friends. How could I not? He has this talent to get you attached to him with that goofy smile of his. He also helped me a lot. Making me laugh every time I was sad and comforting me when I had a nightmare. I don't know where I would be without him. I owe him a lot."

Kara looked back at the red head who looked at her with incredulous eyes and smiled gently:

"And that baka now wants everybody to recognize his existence, so he decided to become Hokage. Can you believe it?"

She laughed before calming and ending in a soft tone:

"But I'm sure he can do it. After all, little by little, I see him getting recognised and respected by more and more people, proving them his strength. And I'm fully with him."

She seemed to notice Gaara's stare and blushed before getting up.

"I'm so sorry I rant and I'm probably annoying you." She said hastily, bowing in apology "I will go now."

She almost ran to the door, slamming it behind her and walking quickly outside the hospital.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter eleven

Kara was looking at Sasuke's fight, rolling her eyes at the raven head's machismo.

The Uchiha showed up more than late (Kakashi's laziness apparently had rubbed on him) and the only thing he said was 'hn' followed by a smirk and eventually an insult to Naruto.

During the blond's fight with Neji, she stayed tense the whole time, her stare unwavering.

She almost cried when he won, an everlasting goofy smile on his face.

'I hope Neji learned his lesson.' She hoped silently "He's young, he still can change.'

Shikamaru's fight made her laugh, but eventually she had to recognise the boy's geniuses.

'Which is a bit weird.' She though 'He was always staying in the background. He looked eternally bored.'

She was surprised and frustrated when her opponent, Kankuro, gave up.

'Which is still very weird.' She though.

When he heard his fight was advanced (due to Sasuke's tardiness), he looked panicked before giving up.

And the sand ninjas were weird. Gaara did nothing but stare at her during all the fights until Sasuke arrived. The girl, Temari, looked nervous and a bit remorseful. As for Kankuro, he looked even more nervous and looked frequently at their sensei and Gaara, his hand gripping tightly his arms.

And just before Gaara went down, Kankuro tried to say something to him but was stopped by Temari who looked positively frightened.

Not to mention she heard some glimpse of conversation including a plan.

'Something about those three isn't right.' Worried the brown haired girl.

'Please Sasuke, be careful.' She worriedly though, watching Gaara encase himself in a ball of sand 'Even I can feel the killing intent coming from your opponent.'

She glanced at Temari and Kankuro. They looked so worried and frightened, that didn't settle her own fear at all.

She marvelled at Sasuke's mastery over the chidori in barely one month, though she became increasingly worried when she heard Gaara's scream and his teamates totally frightened faces.

Kara saw a…'hand' sprouting from the sand ball and was so focused on the match she barely noticed the white feathers floating around.

She began feeling light-headed, but reacted just in time to dispel the genjutsu.

She looked behind her but Shino had already disappeared.

'Well.' She optimised 'That's mean he evaded the genjutsu. That's good.'

She saw from the corner of her eyes Temari and Kankuro jump in the fighting ground, yelling for Gaara.

She leaned against the railing to look around. The spectators were all asleep, victim of the illusion technique. She saw ninjas fight and recognised Konoha nins as well as oto ones.

'The plan…" she suddenly thought 'Was that it? Oto is invading Konoha? Is Suna helping them?'

Seeing the look the proctor was throwing at a ninja's instructor, the answer would be yes.

'I need to find Naruto.' She thought, dashing to the stairs.

Looking at Sasuke, he had probably evaded the genjutsu, but she knew Naruto didn't have the level for that.

Following her brother like figure's chakra, she found him in the stands, unconscious with Shikamaru. She noted Kakashi and Guy along with other Konoha shinobis fighting oto nins, a strange masked ANBU doing nothing.

She froze when she saw their Hokage at the mercy of the Kazekage who seemed in fact to be Orochimaru and was almost stabbed by an Oto Nin's kunai.

She dodged just in time and saw the enemy nin getting thrown back by Kakashi.

"Go wake Naruto and Shikamaru." Her sensei ordered.

She nodded quickly before running to the two.

"Shikamaru!" she scolded when she noticed he wasn't under a genjutsu at all 'Stop being a lazy ass! Konoha is attacked; this isn't the moment to sleep dammit!"

While ranting she dispelled the genjutsu over Naruto and made sure he stayed down.

"Naruto-kun." She said urgently "Konoha is attacked by Oto and Suna shinobis!"

"Really!" exclaimed the blond, still trying to completely wake up.

Kara didn't have time to develop. Guy appeared, throwing an opponent who sneaked on them through the wall, followed by Kakashi.

"Naruto, Shikamaru." Their sensei said "Follow Sasuke, this is an A-ranked mission like in the wave. Don't follow him too far though. Kara, I know you have to go to the hospital, so go and be careful of the enemy."

"Roger." The brown haired girl said shortly, preparing to leave.

"Ano, Kara-chan?" asked Naruto, confused "Why can't you come with us?"

"As a chuunin ranked medic nin I have to report to the hospital to heal any shinobi that the jonin ranked one bring in." explained his sister like figure shortly "I have to go, good luck Naruto-kun, and make sure that you and Sasuke come back in one peace."

She didn't wait for a reply and jumped through the wall, to the hospital.

She quickly hoped from roof to roof, her movement swift and without sound.

Unfortunately for her, her way to the hospital was bordering on the part of the village that was attacked.

She avoided the kunais sent her way and stopped to see two Oto ninjas and the masked ANBU she saw earlier.

Said ANBU waved to the others who disappeared.

"Don't come any closer!" Kara yelled, menacing the man (or woman) with a kunai.

'That's sooo convincing.' Whispered sarcastically a little voice in her head 'He must be terrified'

"You know you're cute when you try to be brave." Said the masked man.

'This voice…' she thought "Kabuto-san?"

"Hai." He said simply, removing his mask.

For a moment Kara was tempted to lower her guard, he looked so harmless!

But there was something about his smile that made an alarm rang loudly in her head. Her instinct literally screamed danger!

He took a step toward her but she held her kunai menacingly, glaring at him.

He chuckled and took another step toward her, not taking her 'menacing' pose in account.

"You know, since I saw you, you fascinated me." He said with a smirk, taking another step forward "You're so caring and selfish. Strong yet fragile."

His smile grew slightly…demented she should say and he continued ranting:

"You're like a little flower in a field, unnoticed. People pass you by without looking at you. But unlike those fools I see your potential. You carry great powers yet to be develop. You have the capacity to transform from a little flower to a dragon, powerful and destructive."

At that moment he looked totally demented and Kara shivered, stepping back.

"I want to possess that power. You'll give it to me, willingly or not."

He took another step toward her but a thrown kunai stopped him in his track.

A black figure jumped between Kara and Kabuto, but the young girl had time to saw the Konoha head band and the ANBU mask.

"Are you okay princess?" asked the masked man, turning slightly to her, seemingly scanning her for injuries.

'Shisui?' though surprised Kara, knowing better than blurt his name as ANBU's identity were supposed to remain secret.

"I'm alright, thank you." She finally answered "Just freaked out."

"I must imagine." Mumbled the masked man before turning to Kabuto fully "Hey you! Who do you think you are, flirting with our girls!"

Kara sweatdropped a little, but got distracted when another man stood beside her.

She tensed a bit, but recognised the Konoha headband of the second ANBU.

"Don't you have somewhere to be?" he asked coldly.

'Itachi Uchiha.' Recognised Kara, albeit she didn't know how exactly.

"Right." She said, preparing to leave again.

"Hey wait." Interrupted Shisui, biting his thumb before doing a few hand signs.

A rather large crow appeared.

"This is Kage." Presented the masked man "He will help you arrive where you have to safely."

"So where to little one?" asked the crow, not losing time.

"To the hospital. Arigato ANBU-san." Replied shortly Kara before running behind the crow.

The bird flew ahead of her, informing her of battles going on and the enemies' movements so that she could evade them swiftly.

She landed in front of the hospital in no time.

"Arigato Kage-san." She said, bowing.

The crow nodded and poofed away, leaving her alone.

She focused and entered the hospital, immediately surrounding by tears and cries (mostly orders though).

"Sorry I'm a bit late!" she exclaimed to the nurse at the reception.

"No need for that." Said quickly the woman "You are waited in block 16. Hurry!"

She nodded before dashing to her locker to change.

::::

For one whole week the village cried the loss of their third Hokage. Kara, feeling Naruto's profound sadness, left him alone, only bothering him for meals.

After the funerals, he seemed to recover and began training quite intensively.

Kara had barely anytime for herself too. All day she was running left and right in the hospital, healing civilians and taking care of shinobis. Each evening, she would crash in her bed, completely out of chakra.

But there was a problem graver than chakra exhaustion in the evening. During the invasion, their building had literally exploded, and with it all their belongings.

They had rented a cheap hotel room they shared but the situation couldn't continue like that.

"What, you are going with that pervert!" exclaimed Kara, surprised.

"Hai." Replied happily Naruto, packing his clothes and all "And he said he would teach me a cool jutsu! Like that I'll become stronger, even stronger than Sasuke!"

Kara sighed at his immaturity and said:

"Well, it's not that I don't mind, but I have to ask you something first."

"Hm?" replied Naruto, stopping to look curiously at her "What is it Kara-chan?"

"Well." Began Kara, fidgeting a bit with her fingers "When you come back from your travel, would you like to…move in with me?"

"Eh, moving with you?" asked Naruto, not understanding.

"Well." Explained Kara "My parents left me their house when they died. I couldn't take it until I was ninja but now, I can and since we have no apartments anymore, I though you might want to settle in my house with me."

There was a silence before Naruto asked, uncertain:

"Are you sure it's okay?"

"Of course." Exclaimed Kara immediately before blushing slightly "You're like a brother to me and I don't want you to live in the street. So you're welcomed to live with me."

"That is of course." She added with mischief "Until you find a wife."

She almost giggled at his flustered face but the boy sobered before smiling wildly at her.

He got up to hug her before whispering to her:

"Arigato Kara-chan."

The girl, moved, hugged him briefly before stepping away, a bit embarrassed.

"Go." She simply said "I won't have you be late. And I expect you to come back to me in one piece."

"Don't worry Kara-chan!" exclaimed her blond haired friend.

::0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0::

The house was a gift of Kara's father to her mother.

While her father had been a shinobi, her mother had been a civilian, a hime even.

When she fled with her husband, even if she never regretted her decision, she still felt a bit homesick in a shinobi town. She had always been evolving within her father's and lord's castle after all.

This is why Kara's father had built this traditional Japanese home just for her happiness.

The house by itself wasn't that big, just a genkan, a large but comfortable ima, a veranda in front of the back garden and two little wings. One held the kitchen and the oshiire, and the other the bedrooms, bathrooms and a covered hot spring at the end.

The house was surrounded by a little traditional Japanese garden in the front, and a larger garden at the back where western and Japanese styles mixed up.

The whole thing was protected by high walls covered by bushes where her father personally put high ranked protection seals (this was probably why the house wasn't destroyed during the invasion).

'Okay, let's do it!' exclaimed internally Kara.

She stepped forward and opened the little gates. The seal on it glowed for some seconds before settling, recognising her as the rightful owner of this place.

She walked down the path to the house and stopped in front of a statue representing a dragon, its head turned toward the sky.

Usually it was a fountain, but it had been long since the head spitted any water.

She climbed in and examined carefully the statue, remembering her father's instructions.

She finally found it, a tiny but important seal at the base of the dragon's neck.

She bit her thumb and spread her blood on the seal, adding a bit of her chakra.

Immediately she felt the connection between her and this place, thank to the seal.

'First phase, done.' She said methodically.

She returned to the gates where two statues of dragon were guarding the entrance, one at each end.

With her new connection to the place she made a seal appear on the wall and reopened her thumbs to spread once again her blood on it.

The two statues were surrounded by smoke, revealing when it disappeared two living, breathing dragons.

One of them a pitch black scales covering his body, a dark red mane sprouting out of his neck and deep purple eyes while the other had pure white scales, a pastel blue mane and light pink eyes.

"So you are the daughter of Daichi-sama." Inquired the white scaled dragon with a light feminine voice 'It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Likewise Seisui-san." Smiled the girl, bowing slightly.

"The last time we saw you you were barely a toddler." Joked lightly the black scaled one with a grave male voice "You grew a lot, and I see you opened the water seal already. Impressive when I think you had to do it without guidance."

"Arigato Hikage-san." Replied Kara "I just wanted to notify you that I will live here from now on with Naruto Uzumaki."

"Naruto Uzumaki…" though out loud Hikage "We heard some rumours on him, but if you think he can be trusted, I'll trust your judgement."

"We are looking forward seeing him." Smiled pleasantly Seisui.

"You can go back now." Ended Kara "It was just to inform you and I don't want to bother you any longer."

The two nodded before being surrounded by smoke. When it cleared, there were two statues again.

Satisfied, Kara made her way to the house.

She entered the house, coughing slightly with the amount of dust the movement of door raised.

She paced up and down the house, memories rushing forward.

The house was a mix of western and traditional style.

The floors were covered by tatamis except for the kitchen, the bathrooms and the veranda, which floors were made respectively of tiles and thick planks of dark wood. There were windows but you could still slide some shoji screens to reveal the garden or pass from one room to another.

In the ima, though there was a traditional low table, there were also more modernized things such as couch and sofa.

She entered her parents' bedroom and felt the walls, searching with her memories.

She finally heard a hollow sound when she knocked and bit her thumb again to spread her blood on the piece of wall.

Her blood disappeared, sucked in the wall before it opened, revealing a flight of stairs.

She climbed them down, two glowing orbs materializing out of nothing to guide her in the darkness.

She entered a large room and one of the orbs few up two light several candelabras, revealing a large library.

Kara however didn't stop (she'd have plenty of time to inspect those scrolls and books later) and continued her walk to the other end of the gigantic room.

There she opened a door and an orb flew up again to light up torches.

The light revealed a large circular room carved in stone with eleven alcoves, each housing a dragon's statue with a symbol carved on its chest.

At the centre was a little altar. Kara neared it before kneeling in front of it. She took an incense stick she bought and lighted it before putting it in the flat bowl reserved for it.

She clapped her hand together, praying for her ancestors and parents' peace in the after world before getting up, leaving the place.

She got back in the house and closed the passageway before putting her mind on cleaning everything (which was promising to be a tiring and long task).

::::

Kara was relaxing a bit in her hotel room from the tiring cleaning she did all the morning when she heard someone knock frantically at the door.

She answered to find a panicked Sasuke, which made her immediately worry (if Sasuke Uchiha was panicked enough to show it externally, it had to be grave).

"What is it Sasuke?" she asked worriedly.

"Where is Naruto?" the boy asked urgently, startling Kara, used by now to his forever unemotional state.

"Well." She answered a bit shakily, surprised by the boy's violence "He went with Jiraya-san. I think I heard him said something about Shukuba."

She barely had time to finish before Sasuke dashed off.

Extremely worried now, Kara quickly packed her thing, excused herself to the inn's keeper and sent a mental message at Seisui and Hikage to signal her departure.

She ran full speed to Shukuba town, her creative mind showing her possible scenarios, most of them showing bloodied and battered Sasuke and Naruto.

She was frantically searching when she heard an explosion and hurried to it.

She barely saw two black burs pass her and entered the half destroyed inn.

There she gasped when she found a battered Sasuke, a bruised Naruto and a contemplative Jiraya.

She didn't waste time, her hands glowing green and she ran to them, kneeling near Sasuke.

::::

Sasuke's injuries where quite serious. Several broken ribs, a badly broken wrist and he was suffering from a genjutsu post trauma.

Fortunately Guy had appeared (and attacked Jiraya, thinking it was an enemy, Kara was still laughing remembering the incident), with Kakashi close in tow and they were going to get Sasuke back to Konoha.

"I'm going with you!" exclaimed Kara, looking stubbornly at Jiraya.

"I told you already." Answered the sannin "You can't."

"I will not let Naruto go with you alone." Bit back the brown haired girl "He might get weird habits from you, and you deserted him at the single glimpse of a beautiful girl!"

"Why you little…" fumed the man "And perhaps you are more appropriate to protect him hn?"

"At least I will not be at home worrying sick over him." Replied Kara, more seriously this time.

Jiraya saw the stubborn determination in her eyes and gave up.

"Alright do what you want." He grunted "But don't go whining after me if you regret after."

Kara replied nothing, just smiled happily, immediately hugged by Naruto.

"Yeah Kara-chan's going with us!" yelled the happy boy, making Jiraya sigh.

::::

Kara stopped in front of a little waterfall and dropped her bag on the floor.

She scanned carefully her surrounding before getting out of her bag a blank scroll.

She also took out a brush and some ink before drawing a seal.

This one was a new seal she learned recently, it would spread on an area of five metres and warn her if somebody stepped in, chakra hidden or not.

'Time for training.' She though, beginning a series of katas.

She had followed all morning Naruto from food stand to food stand, feeling like she did when Naruto would accompany her at any festival back in Konoha when they were younger.

After that they had found Jiraya in a brothel, which had lead to a beating for Jiraya as the man used all Naruto's economies.

Even though the man was a total moron (a bit like Naruto, the fact worried her a lot), she was impressed when he gave a demonstration of the technique he wanted to teach Naruto.

It was literally a spinning ball of chakra, Kara at still a vivid image of the green wisps of chakra forming a ball in Jiraya's hand.

She finished her katas, refocusing on the presents before disrobing and stepping into the pond formed by the waterfall.

She breathed in and out deeply, focusing and feeling the rush of power.

She moved her hips in an arc, the water following almost immediately her movement. She moved her arms above her head, fingers spread like a ballerina, and another stream of water rose from the pound.

She fell into a trance, becoming water herself. She felt it enveloping her body, brushing her skin like a lover's caress, in cool refreshening touches.

She was broke out of her trance however when her seal alerted her of Naruto and Jiraya's coming.

She hastily let the water drop back in the pound, rushing to get dressed.

**Kara: I hope you liked it ! **

**Tenten: Until next week!**


	12. Chapter 12

Dear readers

I have important news so please read.

First: This story is almost finished, only two-three chapters left. But don't worry, this is only the first part ^_^

Second: Bad news, I didn't finish the second part yet (I'm blocking on a passage, all sugestions are welcomed). I promise to send a note to warn you as soon as I post the first chapter).

Third: Second bad news, I'm going to a remote part of France where I'm not sure that I'll have internet, so the last chapter isn't for until at least two or three weeks.

I hope you'll forgive me and wait patiently until I post the next chapter (probably in end-July or August).

Until next chapter

Petitefeeme


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter twelve

**Petitefeeme: It's a miracle! Internet works!**

**Haruko: So here is the next chapter! **

**Petitefeeme: Read and enjoy!**

'Naruto' though sadly Kara, watching him train restlessly.

For the weeks the three stayed in town, she hadn't had much contact with Jiraya and Naruto.

She had her own room, trained alone and only saw them in the morning (if the toad hermit was up that is).

She had improved a lot with her water bending very quickly and was now searching for some techniques she could re-create to bend water with actual hand signs, fusing her chakra with the water for faster result.

When she felt restless without a bit of taijutsu training, she asked Naruto to teach her kage bushin. After one or two days of training she was able to create one kage bushin to spar with for a few hours.

She had some medical scroll she took with her, so she wasn't lacking behind with her medical practice. The only field she had nothing to train with was her genjutsu, but she wasn't too worried for the moment.

Today she had already done her stamina and chakra control training, as well as her katas.

She saw yesterday when she accompanied Naruto to get lunch for Jiraya how he looked longingly at the father and son sharing an ice scream. Unfortunately Jiraya refused to stick around and she knew Naruto would feel bad if she interrupted her training for him.

But throughout her morning training she could help but feel horribly guilty. With each passing second his sad longing face would pop up in her mind and finally she cracked.

"Kara-chan?" asked curiously Naruto, interrupting his training with the rubber ball to look at her.

"Well." Answered Kara, trying to say things so that the boy would feel no guilt "I thought you might want some company. I finished my morning training already and I'm on my break."

"Oh, ok, if you want." Replied the blond boy, trying to not let his voice sound too hopeful.

But nevertheless Kara caught the tone and smiled slightly behind her hand before nodding and sitting under a tree.

She smiled more when she caught the happy eyes of her brother like figure and watched him train, her thoughts soon drifting to her problem with water techniques.

'The only water techniques I saw was when we fought Zabuza in the wave country.' She thought, grimacing at the memory 'Well more like they fought and I stayed like a Barbie doll, only looking pretty.'

But as bitter as this memory was, she could use the techniques she saw when Zabuza fought Kakashi, as well as when Haku fought Naruto and Sasuke.

She got out her little notebook, deactivated the seal sealing it and began listing all the water techniques she saw. She divided them into three parts, water techniques with 'gas' water (like mist), those with actual liquid water and those requiring a transformation from liquid to solid.

She knew she still didn't have the level to change the water molecules' structure to obtain 'gaz' or ice. She would have for now to stick with the techniques involving liquid water.

Fortunately the ones she saw were quite good ones and she couldn't wait to try them out.

::::

Kara concentrated hard and did a one single handed hand sign by pure habit (it was a hand sign used in the academy to teach student how to concentrate and gather chakra, and with Kara the habit stuck, though the hand sign in itself did nothing).

Water around her began to slowly accumulate, forming little by little a water dragon.

'Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu' she though, releasing her water dragon.

It crashed violently against the rock, pulverising it and creating a huge blast.

'Fortunately I put a sound barrier around.' Thought Kara, very proud of her progress in fuinjutsu.

She observed the results. She was satisfied with the damages her water dragon had caused, but it was still a bit too slow. Yes she could add her chakra, but she wanted to attain speed without its use.

She was going to repeat the experience when she heard a blast in Naruto's direction.

Worried, she jumped in her clothes before running to where Naruto was training.

She found him sprawled to the ground, Jiraya behind him.

Her hands glowed green and she kneeled beside her blond friend to heal him.

When she finished with his burned hand, she helped him get up. She wished she could sought his chakra coils a bit like she saw Rin-sensei do, but she still hadn't the level for that.

"So, sensei." Asked excitedly Naruto, grinning from ear to ear "What's the next step?"

"That will have to wait." Replied seriously the man "We're going to meet Tsunade now."

::0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0::

Kara decided quickly that Tsunade indeed had a very short temper and a tragic past.

When they met her at the bar, she gazed into Shizune's eyes and the two immediately had a mutual understanding. Kara was accompanying two males, one reputed to be the pevertest pervert of the world and a baka who didn't know when to stop. And Shizune was always near Tsunade's sides, a woman with a short temper losing money on bets like a river's flow and gulping down sake even faster than Jiraya.

She also quickly made friends with Tonton, having a knack with animals.

When Naruto promised to master the rasengan in one week, she supported Naruto's decision, which led her now in a little clearing near a river.

She looked down at the sleeping boy in front of her, sprawled on the hard cold ground.

She sighed before placing a cover on him and a pillow under his head.

She soothed the muscles on his hands and forearms before putting down beside him a thermos of briar tea and a stash of sandwiches.

She smiled tenderly at him before getting up, walking to her own hotel room for an eagerly awaited sleep.

She got quite well along with Shizune, the two females finding a common ground complaining about their companions.

The older woman even began helping her with her genjutsu.

She downright sucked, that was for sure. Apart from recognising and for the most dispelling Shizune's basics genjutsu techniques, she was incapable of weaving her own illusions.

Of course Shizune taught her one or two basic genjutsus she was working on now, but that would fool nobody except guenins and perhaps one or two low levelled chuunins.

::0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0::

"I think this will be all for today." Stated Shizune "You improved well."

"Arigato Shizune-sensei." Smiled Kara, putting her hands on her knees for support "Genjutsu sure is tricky."

"Don't give up." Encouraged Shizune, helping her walk "I feel that you have a lot of potential. One day you may even surpass me!"

Kara smiled at her half joke and asked:

"Could we stop to grab Naruto? I want him to have a good night sleep for tomorrow."

Shizune nodded and together they walked to Naruto's training ground.

The sight greeting them worried them a lot. Trees cut down, trunk half shredded and a blond haired boy lying unconscious on the ground.

"Naruto-kun!" exclaimed Kara, running to kneel beside him.

Her hands glowed green, but before she could put them on her friend, Shizune stopped her.

"Preserve your chakra." She ordered "I'll do it. Take out the bandages and the aloe vera ointment."

Kara nodded and complied quickly. Together they brought Naruto back to the inn they were staying at.

Kara refused to leave Naruto's side, even when Tsunade entered to check on him.

She absentmindedly listened to the two of them talking, focusing on Naruto, when she felt something hit her.

And then nothing.

She was woken up by Naruto. After a bit of explaining and when Jiraya had found most of his strength back (apparently he was poisoned by Tsunade), they left to find Tsunade.

From the bits she heard from the adults, Kara concluded that Orochimaru, who was apparently the third sannin with Jiraya and Tsunade, had approached the woman to get her to heal his arms (from what she understood, cursed by the deceased third Hokage or something).

Jiraya said clearly he didn't believe that Tsunade would agree, but there was still a glint of worry (after all Orochimaru promised to bring back to life Tsunade's lover and little brother, Kara herself didn't know how she would react if somebody told her that her parents could be brought back to life).

They found the meeting point empty, but with Tonton, they were able to follow Tsunade's trail with her forgotten coat.

When they reached the battle ground, Jiraya threw a smoke bomb to separate Tsunade and Kabuto who were fighting.

"Ka-Kabuto-san?" asked Naruto in disbelief "What are you doing here?"

"Naruto-kun." Said calmly Kara "Look at his headband."

"Oto." Recognised Naruto after complying "How?"

"I believe Kabuto was a spy for Orochimaru." Explained Kara, hoping to not have to explain for too long. Now wasn't the best moment for that.

"Demo." Still tried Naruto "We fought together during the chuunin exam. He even saved me."

"I think it was just to collect informations." Said softly Kara, putting a hand on Naruto's shoulder "I'm sorry Naruto-kun."

"You are so clever." Complimented Kabuto, smirking madly "One of your qualities that drew me to you. I can't wait to get my hands on you. Don't worry I'll treat you well."

He began walking toward them and Kara froze. The look in his eyes was the same she saw during Konoha's invasion. She knew she was no match against him, and she was also afraid of him.

She was surprised when Naruto sprung forward.

"Don't you dare touch her!" the boy roared, creating a few bushin.

The fight was short lived, but Kara was extremely touched by his gesture.

She caught him when Kabuto throw him away.

"Arigato Kara-chan." Grumped the blond, rubbing his eyes.

"Shizune-san." Said Jiraya "Take care of Kabuto, I'll deal with Orochimaru."

"Kara." Said Shizune before running to Kabuto "Take care of Tsunade."

"Hai." Said the girl, positioning herself beside the sannin.

The fight began suddenly, and Kara had just the time to avoid the giant snake swooping down on them, using chakra to propel themselves far away from the huge blast of rocks and fragments.

She put Tsunade down and noticed how shaken she was.

"Tsunade-sama." She tried "Please get a hold of yourself, we need you."

But this was of no use and she heard Shizune cry out in pain.

She turned just in time to see the woman fall unconscious and Kabuto walking to them.

She took out her kunai and faced the man.

"Kara-chan." Smiled Kabuto "I don't want to hurt you, so step aside. I'll deal with you later."

Kara wasn't a woman of many words, she wasn't skilled with them and often got tangled trying to do a speech.

So she only griped her kunai harder and glared at him.

"Shizune-sensei told me to take care of Tsunade." She simply said, and that was enough.

"Really?" asked Kabuto, his smile widening ten times bigger, looking positively creepy "Then let's fight, I hadn't really tested your strength yet."

Kara knew she was no match for him, but with him just 'testing' her, perhaps she could buy enough time for Shizune to gather her strength.

But she couldn't let him approach any nearer, so she charged, swiftly deactivating the weight seals on her wrists and ankles.

She disappeared in front of him to reappear behind him, trying to kick his legs.

But he evaded her tentative and began attacking back.

Kara was able to dodge most of his attacks, but she was sure he was only using a third of his strength.

Her suspicions were confirmed when she barely saw the chakra scalpel in his hands before he slightly hit her legs and torso.

She was propelled against a tree. She tried to get up but the pain in her legs was too much and her lungs were on fire.

"I only bruised your legs so that you can't walk. The pain in your lungs will disappear shortly don't worry."

He said that with a caring tone so sugary she wanted to barf, but she only sent him a nasty glare, struggling to breath.

"A spit fire inside, but a delicacy outside." Smirked Kabuto "I like that."

She watched powerless as Kabuto began hitting a panicked Tsunade. She felt her helplessness even more when Naruto intervened, knowing he had a broken leg.

She could only watch Tsunade protect Naruto's life, feeling so helpless.

'Once again I can do nothing but watch.' She though bitterly.

She was interrupted when someone landed near her.

"Shizune-sensei." Recognized the girl.

"Stop." Told her the woman, removing her green glowing hands to put her owns on her bruised muscles.

"Gomen." Apologized Kara "I'm not advanced enough in my medical studies to heal it efficiently."

"Don't worry, I didn't expect you to." Smiled reassuringly Shizune "And I see you did a pretty good job, even though this kind of injuries aren't at your level. I can tell you'll become a really good medic nin."

Kara smiled, the woman had always the right word to sooth someone.

::0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0::

They had stopped for a day at a resort. First, out of boredom, Kara accompanied the women (Jiraya was in the bath and so the hot spring was out of reach).

"It's boring." Said Kara, looking passively at Tsunade playing pachinko.

The blonde replied nothing, too concentrated on the game and Shizune sent her an apologetic smile.

Kara sighed. There was no way she was standing here any longer.

"I'm going to look around." She said, turning to the exit.

"Have fun." Replied gently Shizune, while Tsunade kept concentrating.

Kara walked lazily through the town's roads and stopped to buy some anpans (a Japanese pastry, a bun filled with anko).

She was strolling, eating slowly one anpan and offering her face to the warm sun's rays when she noticed an ocarina in a shop.

She neared it to inspect the instrument further. It was quite beautiful, the dark wood composing it varnished and decorated with delicate, equally varnished dark blue dragon with a very light red flower.

She entered the shop.

"Sumimasen." She asked "How much for this ocarina?"

She reappeared outside a few minutes later, a bag in her hand.

She decided to get back to the inn when she saw Tsunade running to her.

"Kara-chan!" exclaimed the woman, taking both her shoulder in a death grip "Did you see Naruto?"

"Err…no." replied Kara, blinking in confusion.

The second after Tsunade was running off again.

'Should I go investigate?' asked herself Kara, putting a finger on her chin in deep reflection 'It seems that Naruto once again got into trouble.'

'…Naaaa.' She finally decided, walking back lazily to the inn they stopped at.

::0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0::

Kara knocked on the door before entering.

Since she came back, Rin-sensei tried to smother her under tons of adjustment work. She was so busy running right and left she didn't have time to visit Sasuke.

Tsunade healed him completely, and he would soon get out of the hospital (probably tomorrow).

"Konochiwa Sasuke!" exclaimed happily the girl "How are you doing?"

"Hn.' Replied stoically the raven head.

Kara, not phased at all, sat on a stool near his bed.

"It is good to hear your gorilla answers once again." She joked, smirking lightly "Though I had to admit not being the receiving end of your glares was quite restful, we had to assign you a personal nurse every day to ward off fangirls and get rid of all the flowers they sent you. And trust me it wasn't a piece of cake because half of the nurses were fangirls."

"Hn." Simply said Sasuke, smirking.

Kara stopped her joking, her smirk replaced by a relived soft smile.

"I didn't have the chance to tell you thank you. Without you Naruto would have probably been kidnapped. We were worried when, even with Rin-sensei's intervention, you didn't wake up completely. You should have seen Naruto. The moment Tsunade stepped in Konoha he almost dragged her to the hospital to heal you."

Feeling daring today, fuelled by the relief she felt when she heard Sasuke was out of danger, she leaned forward to hug him briefly.

"As for me." She finished "I'm glad you're alright."

She smiled at the frozen Sasuke and got up.

"Well, I'll leave you alone now. I have reports to arrange."

::::

Kara was glad Tsunade had given team seven a mission, even if it was without Kakashi. She was a bit worried when the woman said it was B ranked, and would probably level up to a A rank, but she understood that they were short on ninjas since the invasion. She just hoped that they were up to it.

She was so busy lately she took the mission like a break. Between her medical training (which increased ten times worse since she came back), her training, her team (she had followed her two boys as they desperately tried to discover the face of Kakashi hidden behind his mask.) and the house she just finished cleaning, Kara had no time for herself or her friends. Heck, she barely had time to visit Hana, Hinata and Kiba.

"Hey!" yelled Naruto "Let's take a break here, I'm hungry."

And before any of them could reply anything, he sprinted towards the restaurant which had beginning to appear.

"Well." Sighed Kara "Let's follow him, I don't want to let him command anything without us. He might eat all his money away."

Sasuke grunted in what seemed agreement (she wasn't sure, but she was very proud at getting better to understand Uchiha-nese), and followed her.

A gentle looking obaa-chan took their command. While they waited, half listening to Naruto's incessant banter, Kara took in her surroundings.

The restaurant was humble, and empty (they were in the middle of the afternoon after all) save for a man sharpening a stick at the far corner of the room.

She didn't like the way he looked at them, with a mix of disgust and mischief (not a very good combination in her opinion).

She observed him as he got up with an arrogant smile on his face.

"Konoha ninja are so weak." He said as he walked by them "Are you afraid to stay out in the sun."

"Nande?" said grumpily Naruto, immediately set off by the stranger's arrogant tone while Sasuke narrowed his eyes.

"If every ninjas of Konoha are like you, I wonder how this village is still standing." Said the stranger, adding oil to the fire.

Kara grimaced internally as Naruto got up, angry.

The stranger's eyes went to her and stayed a moment before a flirting smirk made his way to his face.

"Hi there sweetie." He said with a tone that made Kara sick "What's your name."

"I don't speak to strangers." Smiled disarmingly (and fakly) Kara.

"What a beautiful smile." Appreciated the man "My name is Morino Idate. How about speaking of our future?"

"Our future, Morino-san?" asked Kara, her smile getting bigger (and faker).

"Hai." Said Idate with this time a lower and more seductive voice "Quit being ninja and become my wife."

He winked at her. Kara could literally feel on her skin the dark aura emitted by her two companions. She wondered how Morino could be oblivious to that.

'He has no future as a ninja.' She thought 'And winking is so cliché.'

"Hey!" yelled Naruto, snapping "Don't you dare speak to Kara-chan!"

"Kara?" said Morino "What a beautiful name for a beautiful girl."

Kara frankly didn't know how to react. Most of the time she was invisible to others and due to her relation with Naruto, no boys had flirted with her.

"You jerk!" yelled Naruto, prepared to punch the guy "Don't flirt with Kara-chan!"

"Naruto-kun!" the girl said in an authoritarian voice "Refrain yourself! Do I have to remember we are on a mission?"

She had to. She had looked at Sasuke for help, but the boy was too busy glaring at the boy.

Fortunately what she said calmed down Naruto and he sat down as the woman brought their commands.

That's when Kara realised the boy was gone.

"Where is that boy?" she asked, making Naruto and Sasuke notice his disappearance.

"Ano?" asked confusingly Naruto.

"I didn't even feel him leave." Muttered grumpily Sasuke.

That got Kara worried. If even Sasuke, and she, who was near the boy when he left, hadn't felt Morino leave, then there was something wrong.

Either Morino was a ninja himself, either he had special abilities or training.

She doubted he was a ninja.

She got out of her thoughts when the woman serving them put two bills on the table.

"Sumimasen obaa-san." She said "Why are there two bills?"

"Well." Answered the woman "The young boy who left some times ago said you were paying for him."

Kara would lie if she said this didn't irritate her.

"I can't stand for that!" yelled angrily Naruto "Let's go after him!"

"I know where he went." Said Sasuke, straightening after putting his ear on the ground "he's extremely fast."

"Ikuso!" yelled Naruto, dashing forward, followed shortly by Sasuke.

"Arigato." Kara said to the woman in a hurry, leaving some money on the table before rushing after her teamates.

They caught up to him quite easily, but he tricked them again before running off even faster than before.

They decided it was no use to try to follow him and went to meet Jirocho-sama.

He was very cordial to them, recognising Naruto and Kara (they met him when Tsunade, Jiraya, Shizune and they stopped at a resort for the day on their journey back to Konoha).

He explained the ancestry rivalry between the Wasaki and Wagarashi clan. Apparently The Wagarashis continuously cheated so the three of them had to protect the Wasaki's champion.

"Alright!" yelled Naruto, agreeing.

"When do we begin?" asked more casually Sasuke.

Kara didn't feel the need to add her agreement.

"You accept?" asked Jirocho before smiling happily "Arigato."

He clapped in his hand and someone opened a shoji screen.

Kara almost immediately recognised him. She couldn't help but smile when she saw the face of her two boys when they also recognised him.

She had to calm Naruto, but in the end they were permitted to wander in town (only the Wasaki part though).

She was inspecting some merchandise, Sasuke boredly following her (she still had to understand why he did so).

'This is awfully expensive.' Thought the girl, holding a hair pin to her eyes' level.

"Do you think it's too high?" said the saleswoman, smiling apologetically "I wish I didn't have to sale it so high demo…"

They were interrupted by a crashing sound.

Kara turned to find three men menacingly hovering above a fallen man, who obviously was a civilian. She immediately recognised the three other as Wagarashi men, considering the clan's symbol was sewed on their clothes.

Her blood boiled when she saw the way the three handled the poor farmer and without thinking she walked forward.

"Stop it!" she exclaimed angrily "What are you doing to this man?"

"Stay out of this little girl." Replied one of the man, grabbing roughly her wrist.

He had no time to understand what happened next. Kara frowned, concentrated her chakra on her fist like she saw Tsunade do when they travelled together, and punched the man straight in the stomach.

He was punched roughly until a wall stopped him. It wasn't anything near Tsunade's prowesses, but Kara was still proud of her achievement (she only begun training with that not too long ago after all).

Sasuke joined the fight, and the three thugs were quickly dealt with.

Kara almost giggled when Sasuke cracked loudly his knuckles, sending them running away.

He saw her laugh in her eyes thought and smirked back.

Kara smiled but their moment was interrupted by the man who they rescued and the saleswoman.

"Arigato." Smiled the man to Sasuke, while the woman walked up to Kara.

"With you." She smiled "We have a good chance to win. Accept this as a token of my gratitude."

And she put the hairpin into Kara's hand.

"No." tried Kara "I can't."

"I insist." Replied the woman "You're our first hope for a long time."

After arguing a bit, Kara paid her half the price and gave the woman medicine against flew for her grandson.

**Petitefeeme: And here is the 12****th**** chapter! I hope you liked it!**

**Kara: Don't forget to review. Until next chapter! And we wish you happy holidays!**


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter thirteen

**Petitefeeme: And here is another chapter! ^_^ I hope you're having good and most of all sunny holidays.**

**Kara: Disclaimer, because we need to say it from time to time, the author doesn't own Naruto, only her OCs!**

**Petitefeeme: Read and enjoy! **

Protecting Idate, even at the beginning, was tough. The race had barely begun when the boy (and Naruto) got caught up in genjutsu and almost fell off a cliff. Fortunately Sasuke and Kara were here to save the two.

And now they were on a boat, on fire, attacked by mizu bushins.

Kara really wished to be more advanced with her water bending. If she was, she could have dispelled the bushins by just touching them, but unfortunately she wasn't and had to result into slashing them with her kunai one after the other.

'Everything could be easier if this stubborn boy would move.' Kara though irritated while preventing a kunai from hitting Idate.

"Onegai Morino-san!" she exclaimed impatiently "Why would we use you as a decoy if we have to protect you? Please, just jump in the water, we will be right behind you. I ask you to trust us."

He seemed hesitant and Kara took the opportunity to push him in the water.

"Swim to the shore." She told him "I promise we will be right behind you."

She turned to her teamates to signal that Idate was out of danger and they all dived in.

They were swimming in silence when Kara felt a perturbation in the water under her.

Instinctively she kicked and hit something (she wasn't sure what exactly), but one thing was certain, their opponents were underwater.

"Naruto!" she yelled when he saw him disappear.

"Dobe." Said Sasuke "It's not the time to fool around."

"No Sasuke." Said urgently Kara before diving "Our enemies are under us."

She swam down and indeed saw them bringing Naruto down.

She frowned when she saw one of them smirk.

'This is probably a trap with Naruto as the bait for us' she though before seeing them create mizu bushins.

She knew that in the water she and Sasuke couldn't hope to compete, it left her one option.

She grabbed Sasuke's wrist, forcing him to stay in beside her.

Ignoring his impatient glare, she did one single handed hand sign the boy didn't recognise.

To mix some chakra with their elemental techniques, Kara's clan invented their own set of hand signs.

The one she was doing was the water one, and with a bit of her chakra, the three water dragons formed were a lot faster.

She made them dive down, attacking the water clones one by one before taking back Naruto.

Of course her ninjutsu was naturally a lot stronger than their enemies' and her dragons had no problem getting back their blond teamate.

She put him into Sasuke's arms and motioned him to swim up.

He grimly complied and Kara ordered her dragons to create a whirlwind to swallow the three ame ninja before swimming up herself.

"How did you do it?" asked Sasuke when she surfaced back.

"You're not the only ones who can improve you know." She replied back, frowning a bit "Now come on, Morino-san must be waiting for us."

Sasuke frowned but let the matter drop.

When they finally found Idate, he was being attacked by another ame ninja.

Kara rushed to the fallen boy, trusting her teamates to take care of the ninja.

Her hands glowed green and she inspected Idate.

'Poison.' She though before taking out of her bag a little scroll.

She opened it, revealing a seal that every ninja used to decipher a type of poison when they didn't have a laboratory under their hands.

She picked up a needle and let the poison coating it drop on the seal.

It glowed a few seconds before a list of ingredients composing the poison appeared.

Kara sighed in relief. The poison used by the enemy nin was just a common one, easy to heal if noticed early.

The only problem was that Kara didn't know how much time the poison had been in Idate's bloodstream.

She could only hope it wasn't for long as she administered the medicine.

::0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0::

Kara waved at Idate, happy that the Wasaki clan won and that the Wagarashi clan was dissolved.

They were currently on a Konoha boat, on their way home.

When they had to pass a bridge connecting one island to another, they were attacked again by the ame nin.

Kara was surprised when she saw the second Hokage's sword in the enemy nin's hands but didn't have time to ponder on it.

The fight happened really fast and she had barely the time to save Sasuke from a deadly dip in the gorge under the bridge.

She had to pin her knees and legs on the ground with chakra to prevent them from falling.

Keeping an eye on the fight, she had gathered chakra in her hands and forearms before pushing her teamate up.

She had laid Sasuke on the ground to inspect him, but there wasn't much she could do. The boy had received a huge electric wave in his body, and Kara wasn't advanced enough to deal with that particular type of injury.

She was happy when Naruto defeated the nin, and told him to go ahead with Idate.

She had to carry Sasuke most of the way (and he wasn't really feather like) and took a detour (the bridge was destroyed after all), but they made it to applaud Idate's win.

And now the raven head was sulking in an emo corner.

It didn't take long to discover Sasuke's inferiority complex. With a genius brother and the mirage of Konoha as a cousin, who wouldn't?

This is why she dedicated a part of her time helping him get out of it, like she helped Naruto when he needed support.

Like a sister would to a brother.

Leaving Naruto's side, she went to kneel in front of the boy.

"Sasuke." She said, getting his attention "Do you know how Naruto was able to defeat the enemy nin?"

The boy frowned more darkly, but she saw the gleam of curiosity in his eyes.

"When you attacked with your chidori." She told him "You created a breach in the sword. Naruto was able to exploit it and completely break it. And trust me when I say that without it, the ninja was pretty weak."

She took his hands in hers before continuing:

"This isn't about being a hero Sasuke, this is about teamwork. Without you Naruto would have never succeeded and vice versa. Idem for me."

She smiled.

"We are a team Sasuke. When we win, we win together."

Sasuke didn't show any emotion on his face, but Kara knew by his relaxed stance and his slightly calmer expression that she had succeeded.

::::

Kara was sipping her tea in her veranda, enjoying the garden's view when Seisui and Hikage informed her of a visitor.

She sighed before getting up. With her medical and normal trainings, Naruto and Sasuke, this was one of her rare time where she could relax alone.

She opened the gates to find a ninja, probably a messenger.

"Hai?" she asked.

"You are being summoned by Hokage-sama." Said very formally the ninja "Be at room 403 at the academy in ten minutes."

Kara nodded, letting the ninja go before going back to tidy up things before leaving.

The summoning intrigued her. Rooms from 400 to 500 were usually for training young guenin medic. That made her remember her early times when she was herself there, sucking up like a sponge everything the teacher said.

What could Tsunade want from her, and at a place like this.

She said goodbye to the dragons guarding the gates and made her way to the meeting point.

"Hinata-chan!" she called, recognising her friend about to enter the academy door.

The two shared a long hug, having not seen each other for a long time now.

"How are you Hinata-chan." Asked happily Kara "I miss our spars together."

"Oh, the usual." Replied shyly her friend, having won over her stutter in her friend's presence (she still stuttered like hell in front of Naruto) "Training, missions and I'm trying to prove to my father that I'm not weak and able to lead the Hyuuga clan."

"I'm fully with you." Answered Kara, knowing her friend's wish to unite the clan and pacify the hostility among the two Hyuuga branches "And I heard that you've gone with Naruto onto a certain number of missions. I hope that you two got closer?"

"H-Hai." Blushed Hinata, returning to her stutter so embarrassed she was "I-I can say we are f-friends n-now."

"I'm glad for you." Smiled softly Kara, trying to appease the poor blushing girl.

They entered the room which was full of girls mainly and stepped aside just in time to let two bickering girls enter themselves.

Their verbal fight was so high pitched that Kara could barely made out words like 'billboard brow' or 'Ino pig'.

Hinata and Kara shared a look before someone stepped up next to them.

"Tenten-sempai." Smiled the two, recognising their friend.

Over the year and through training, they had become friends, not as deep as the bound between Hinata and Kara, but friends nonetheless.

"Don't call me sempai." Smiled the girl, embarrassed "It makes me feel old."

"Gomen." Apologized Kara "But without you, I would never had improved my aim."

"And I w-would never h-have improved l-like I did." Added Hinata "So it is a m-mark of respect."

"Hey!" exclaimed a voice "Isn't it Kara, Hinata and Tenten."

They turned to find Ino walking to them, a pink haired girl trailing behind her.

"Ino-san, Sakura-san." Greeted Kara "It's been a while."

Ino smiled, but Sakura sent her a hateful glare that make Kara blink.

Ino noticed this and said:

"You must excuse billboard brow here. She's so hung up with Sasuke that she doesn't believe you're only his teamate."

"Oh." Replied Kara, understanding "I assure you Sakura-san, that I'm not interested in Sasuke in a romantic way. To me he's a teamate and a brother figure of sort. A moody emo brother."

The girls laughed at that and even Sakura stopped glaring, though she still was suspicious.

They were interrupted when Tsunade entered the room followed by Shizune.

"I'll be quick." Began the Hokage "It's been decided that every team will have a medic nin for back up."

Murmurs erupted but Tsunade ordered the silence before continuing:

"However, due to the difficulty of the medic training and our shortened numbers after Orochimaru invasion, you will only have a basic medical training. It will be difficult because while doing it, you must be available to do any mission I give you. But I trust you to accomplish your duty. If I thought you weren't up to the challenge, I would never have summoned you. Any questions?"

"Why are they alm1ost no men?" asked a random kunoichi.

"Because teaching men medical jutsu is almost impossible." Said Tsunade in a matter or fact tone "Females ninjas tend to have more chakra control and boys are hard headed anyway."

This was said in a tone so rash the whole room erupted in giggles, save for the few men that were here.

::::

"Morning sleepy head." Kara greeted a bleary eyed Naruto "Eat quickly, we are summoned by the Hokage."

Her blond friend grumbled lowly (she decided that it was a good morning greeting) and sat on his chair.

He became more energetic after eating and together they walked to the Hokage tower.

"You were late yesterday." Said Kara, her tone accusing "You were at Ichiraku again."

"N-No I don't s-see what m-makes you th-think that." Stuttered Naruto. He knew that Kara reproved his eating habits (which consisted of just ramen if she wasn't supervising him).

Kara frowned before saying:

"You were eating ramen with this old carpenter again." She accused, making Naruto sweating from nervosity.

She wanted to question him further but they entered Tsunade's study.

"We're here Hokage-sama." Kara greeted "Shizune-sensei, Shikamaru-san."

A few hours later, Konoha nine and Tenten's team, as well as Sakura, met in the training ground team seven had used for their bell test.

There Shikamaru explained everything.

Kara was a bit ashamed that she didn't noticed the fog the night before (she could be a very heavy sleeper), but pitied Naruto when he discovered that their suspect was the man he ate ramen with those last two weeks.

She was put in the team in charge of inspecting the corpse with Sakura and Ino.

"We're still patching him up." Said a medic nin "You can wait outside."

"I will stay if you don't mind." Replied Kara before turning to her companions "You can wait outside if you want."

Ino nodded, shaken at seeing a dead corpse, but Sakura stepped beside Kara.

"I want to stay too."

The medic saw no objection and Kara glanced at Sakura curiously.

The pink haired girl glanced back and Kara saw the flame of challenge in her eyes. The girl refused to be a step lower than her.

She saw that, but Kara refused to answer it. It wasn't a competition and she refused to race with Sakura, so she only smiled before concentrating on the corpse.

She felt Sakura get a little sick, but her stubbornness impressed her.

"Can I ask you who your teamates are?" asked Kara curiously.

"I'm in a team with another girl and a boy." Replied Sakura, relaxing a bit "Their names are Aimi and Sho."

"It must have been easier to cooperate during the team test?" Suggested Kara, happy that the girl was able to relax.

"Hai." Smiled Sakura "Our sensei, Daiki, is a bit rough but he is very good. I can remember him groaning about having a team full of giggling girls. But we proved him that we could handle ourselves during his test. As for teamwork, we figured it after a while. Sho and Aimi were friends during the academy."

Noticing the hint of envy in her voice, Kara said:

"I think you are very intelligent too. You bested me during for the academic written exam."

"I'm just good at sucking up informations." Replied a bit sullenly Sakura.

"It's a really good quality." Countered Kara "Informations are very important for ninjas. Someone who can memorize them perfectly is a great asset."

She saw the small smile on Sakura's face and smiled ten times back. The girl was still wary around her but she succeeded into easing the tension between them someway.

The analysing later proved that the man wasn't Gennou and the girls reported.

Kara was put with Hinata and Sakura to search for traps in the academy.

When they discovered that there were paper bombs all over Konoha, she was put with Sasuke to retrieve as most papers they could (she suspected they put her with him because she was the only one who was able to work with him, even a bit).

"I'm not going down." Said Kara with a tone of finality "You do."

"What?" asked Sasuke, sarcastic "Afraid of height?"

"This is not funny Sasuke." Glared Kara, seeing his smirk.

But his smirk got only bigger. Pouting, Kara put some chakra on her feet before walking down the cliff.

She got the paper bomb and was going to go up again when she made the mistake of looking down.

She felt herself being dizzy and tried desperately to concentrate.

It unfortunately didn't work and she felt herself begin to fall when a hand shot down to grab her wrist and hole her up.

"A-Arigato Sasuke." Said Kara, a bit shaken up still.

"Hn." Only said Sasuke, helping her get up "You're the only one in our group who can cook decently."

"You only saved me because I can cook." Pouted/whined Kara "Your mean Sasuke!"

She froze when she heard him chuckle. It was a barely heard but still a real one.

"Oh my god!" exclaimed Kara, forgetting her previous misadventure "You can laugh!"

She meant it as a joke, but Sasuke sobered up immediately.

"Who knew the great Sasuke Uchiha could have another emotion than bored or angry?" taunted Kara, smirking "Don't worry, I'll never tell anyone that you can be human."

This time he caught up her joking tone and a small smirk made his way to his face.

"You better." He said before beginning walking "I'll make sure of that."

"I'm sooo scared." Replied Kara in a not really afraid voice, rolling her eyes before following after him.

::::

"I'm boored!" yelled Naruto, frowning.

Kara for the umpteenth time sighed at her teamate's impatience while Sasuke glared at him.

'And to say I was happy to have another mission with them.' Though tiredly the girl.

The statement was true. Locked all day in the hospital, she was happy when she had been summoned for a mission with Naruto and Sasuke.

Their mission was to escort safely a rogue ninja named Gantetsu. There was a strong suspicion that his group would try to free him.

Unfortunately they didn't get along with captain Todoroki who apparently despised ninjas, and in the end they were 'tossed' at an end of the boat so that they didn't disturb the guard unit.

With the lack of answer from his teamates, Naruto pouted before getting up.

"I'm going to see the prisoner." He said stubbornly.

"Naruto." Scolded Kara "We were told to stay here."

"I want to see what kind of guy he is." Replied Naruto before sliding in the boathouse where the prisoner was.

He disappeared and Kara sighed once again before returning to her ramen bowl.

She heard a crashing sound before being thrown on the side of the boat with Sasuke.

She noticed one of the guards trying to regain his balance before falling over and grabbed him just in time, using chakra on her feet and her hand.

"What happened?" she asked Sasuke.

"The boat was cut in half!" exclaimed Sasuke "We have to reach the banks."

Kara nodded and jumped in the water, Sasuke following.

They were swimming when the brown haired girl heard shouts.

She turned her head to see several men struggling against the current and basically drowning themselves.

'They're trained imperial guards and they don't know how to swim?' Kara sweatdropped before using her chakra to water walk.

She pulled the guards toward the bank one after another.

The men thanked her profusely, making her quite embarrassed (they were literally crying).

"Let's go." Interrupted Sasuke, grabbing her elbow before pulling her where Naruto, captain Todoroki, the prisoner and half of the boat disappeared.

They ran for quite some time before dodging an attack from above.

They saw a figure retreat and shared a look before running after it.

The figure led them to a clearing where they were circled by other figures.

'Something is not right." Though Kara 'I feel no chakra coming from those figures.'

'Who are you?" called Sasuke "Reveal yourself."

The figures stepped into the light and Kara could finally see that they were….children?

'Children?' repeated her surprised mind.

"Give us back Gantetsu!" yelled the children before attacking them.

"Please calm down." Called Kara, dodging effortlessly their weapons "I think we should stop fighting and talk a bit a bit. We don't have Gantetsu."

The older one of them held a hand to stop the other and spoke.

"Sorry, we thought you were of the dropout gangs."

"Don't worry." Smiled Kara "We are leaf shinobis. I am Kara and this is Sasuke. Care to tell us what's going on?"

The children began explaining what Gantetsu had done and his plan to steal the gang before getting caught by the police in hope that it would lead the bandits out.

"I see." Grunted Sasuke, thinking hard.

"I hope Naruto and captain Todoroki are alright." Mused out loud Kara, worried.

If the gang was searching Gantetsu, inevitably they would also find the two.

"Did you said Todoroki?" asked suddenly the older boy.

Kara looked at him curiously and was about to reply when they sensed a movement ahead.

They looked up to see Gantetsu in a filet and a suspicious man sneering at him.

When they saw them Gantetsu began struggling, leading eventually the two men falling down.

The older boy recklessly attacked before Kara could restrain him and got also captured.

Kara and Sasuke tried to rescue him, but the man made a shield out of metal string.

'Strange technique.' Though Kara before hearing a shout.

She recognised Naruto and smiled in relief (and Sasuke's relieved smirk didn't go unnoticed either).

Her blond teamate succeeded into beating the enemy nin but another one appeared and took the older boy (if she understood right his name was Akio).

The boys decided to go with Gantetsu and Todoroki to rescue Akio.

"Kara-chan?" asked Naruto "Can you please look after the children?"

"Hai." Sighed the girl, a little hurt that they were going to leave her behind once again "Just be careful ok?"

Naruto smiled wildly and Sasuke smirked before they departed.

"Okay." Said Kara to the children "No use of staying like that all day. How about you show me your home. We can wait there."

The children complied and led her to a humble hut.

Kara looked around and noticed a little bundle curled around in a corner.

"Who is it?" she asked the nearest child, a little boy.

"Her?" he asked for assurance before answering "Since Gantetsu brought her here, she had always been sick."

"Really?" mused for herself Kara, slowly approaching the bundle.

She frowned at the sensation she was feeling.

'This isn't possible.' She though, bewildered 'Only if…'

She parted the covers, revealing a tuft of intense copper red hairs.

The little girl couldn't be more than one year old, and Kara could distinctly see the yin/yang symbol on her forehead.

A symbol only she could see.

Because they were of the same clan.

The Kokoro clan.

**Kara: Finished, we hope you liked it !**

**Petitefeeme: And here is the question of the week? Where would you go for a first date? I'm blocking on this passage for forever and (wink wink) if I don't have any ideas I won't finish the second parts. **

**Kara: You're asking that because Blue-chan is gone.**

**Petitefeeme (pouting childishly): It's her fault if she has gone in an even more remoted place than me with no way to contact her! She's my inspiration for romantic moment.**

**Kara: Please help a distressed author! Petitefeeme will be sure to thank you for that in her dedicated chapter. **

**Petitefeeme: And don't forget to review to tell me how awesome my story is XD**

**Kara: Aren't you a bit too sure of yourself?**

**Petitefeeme: Really? I didn't notice anything.**

**Kara: -_-! **


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter fourteen

**Petitefeeme: And here is the last chapter! Don't worry I'm working on the second part and I promise I'll send a note in this story to warn you.**

**Kara: Disclaimer, Petitefeeme don't own any of Naruto's character, only her own Ocs.**

**Petitefeeme: And I want to thank Blue-chan for the little fluff at the end of the chapter!**

**Kara: Read and enjoy!**

Kara checked the little girl with her medical chakra.

It resulted that her body wouldn't last long.

The kekke genkai of Kara's clan usually appeared at the baby's first birthday (only with girls of course). But due to the sheer amount of power, the baby's weak body wasn't able to support it and would eventually die.

This is why, after the apparition of the bloodline limit, the baby's parents would seal it, to unseal it when the little's body was strong enough to house it without danger.

"Her parents were also killed by these dropout ninjas?" she asked the little girl beside her.

When she saw her nod, her suspicions were confirmed.

The little girl's parents were killed before her first birthday and didn't have the chance to put the clan's seal on her.

"Okay I need your help." She called to the children around her. I will need a couple of things to heal her. Can someone bring me a bowl of water?"

A boy nodded before rushing of.

"Okay next I'll need someone to dig up a whole flower, roots, earth and all. I'll also need a candle and a little windmill."

A few children nodded before running out.

Kara began rummaging in her bag to get out a flashlight, some ink and a brush.

She told the remaining children to give her space before beginning to draw the seal on the wooden floor.

She draw a large yin and yang symbol surrounded by three interconnected circles.

In one of them she wrote mind, on another soul and on the last one heart.

She then drew four windmill wings and connected them with a large outer circle.

The children gone came running inside with the items she asked for.

She thanked them and lighted the candle on one wing. Beside it she put the battery of her flash light.

On the other wings she put the bowl of water, the flower with a few rocks and the paper windmill with a little bell.

She placed the little girl in the centre little circle and kneeled near one of the boys.

"While the seal glow." She explained "Whatever might happen, don't move an inch. If you see me collapse after the seal disappears, don't worry and make me eat this pill."

She gave the little boy a soldier pill before walking into seal, placing herself just above the little girl's head.

She concentrated and poured chakra into the seal which began glowing.

Spirals of energy came out of the yin, the yang, the mind symbols and the rock levitated to circle the two.

The seal glowed a bit more before the rock and energies circling them disappeared, the seal following shortly after.

Kara collapsed on her knees, utterly exhausted.

The boy she gave the pill neared her with the item and a glass of water.

She smiled to thank him a gulped the pill down.

She watched as vivid green eyes rimmed with light blue opened warily.

The little girl tried to stand up, but tripped over her own feet.

Kara caught and drew her near her in a comforting hug.

The child looked at her and her eyes riveted on her forehead, where Kara was sure she could see her own yin/yang symbol.

"Everything's going to be alright now." Kara smiled reassuringly "You're coming with me."

The child blinked cutely before yawning. She was tired.

She snuggled deeper into Kara's hold before falling asleep.

Together with the children they waited for the men's return.

When they finally got back with Akio, Kara healed the boy's injury before nearing Gantetsu.

"Gantetsu-san." She said "I'll need to take this little girl with me."

Since she had awaken, the little girl sticked to Kara's side, refusing to let go and wailing when someone tried to take her away from the older girl.

Kara didn't put any particular inflection in her tone, but Gantetsu was a seasoned shinobi and understood the meaning under her words.

"Take care of her." He simply said, ruffling the little girl's hairs in Kara's arms.

"Don't worry I will." The green eyed girl said, smiling.

Todoroki decided to let Gantetsu stay with the children in the forest. After finding their way out of the forest (which took some times since they got lost at least three times), Todoroki met with his men at the nearest town.

Funny enough, just before the Konoha ninjas departed again, the guards Kara saved offered her a pair of daggers to thank her.

She tried to refuse, but they insisted and at the end she was forced to accept.

The daggers weren't fancy, more practical. Their handles were covered with a black leather and their blades were sharp and glinting softly under the light.

Naruto had taken an immediate like to the little girl who would live with them from now on, And for that Kara was glad. She didn't know what she could have done if the two began disliking each other.

The thing even more surprising was that even though the girl would mostly hide within Kara's hug, Naruto succeeded into making her laugh and smile. It made Kara's heart warm.

Sasuke during the trip had remained for the most part silent, but Kara saw the curious look he would give the child from time to time.

"We need to find her a name." said Kara one night.

They had stopped to make camp and the little girl was currently sleeping in Naruto's arms.

"How about ramen?" suggested Naruto before being hit by Sasuke.

"Dobe." Said Sasuke.

"Teme!" yelled back Naruto

"Naruto don't shout." Scolded Kara "You wake the little one."

"Gomen Kara-chan." Whispered Naruto.

Silence lasted only a few minutes before Kara said:

"I was thinking of Hanaka."

"It's a weird name." replied Naruto before once again being hit.

"Don't listen to him." Said Sasuke "Hanaka is an adequate name."

Kara smiled at Sasuke, ignoring Naruto sulking in a corner, mumbling something about ramen being an excellent name.

::::

Two weeks had passed since they returned to the leaf village and little Hanaka was acclimating quite well.

Though it was taking some time for her to get used to a person, she was slowly warming to everyone.

Kara was currently training in one of the house's training ground (her father had made many behind the backyard. He liked his privacy) with Hanaka playing on a tablecloth with some toys Naruto and (surprisingly) Sasuke bought for her.

'Suiton.' Though Kara, making the habitual concentration (and useless) single hand sign 'Great wave release.'

Slowly a huge amount of water gathered in front of her before rushing to the rock targets, galloping horses forming on top of the gigantic wave.

It collapsed violently on the rocks, crushing them.

Hanaka giggled and clapped her hands, making Kara turn to her and smile.

She wiped her sweaty forehead and walked to the little girl.

"I think this will be all for today." She said, bringing the eagerly waiting baby into her arms "You'll catch a cold if you stay outside any longer."

Her only answer was a gurgle and Kara walked to the house.

After a warm shower and a change of clothes, she was relaxing with a warm tea in the ima with Hanaka, letting the little girl see an educational program (which she found really stupid by the way) when Seisui and Hikage informed her that someone was at the gates.

She gathered Hanaka in her arms and answered to find a random chuunin waiting for her.

"You've been summoned by the Hokage." He said simply before vanishing.

'Why couldn't have they warned me earlier.' Grumbled internally Kara, stepping back inside to prepare herself as well as Hanaka 'And of course Naruto decided to go have ramen with Sasuke when I need him the most.'

She arrived in the Hokage's study thirty minutes later, Hanaka in her arms.

"Hokage-sama.' Greeted Kara before greeting anyone else "Shizune-sempai, Sakura-san, Sasuke, Shino-san, Neji-san, Hinata-chan, Shikamaru-san."

The two girls smiled at her before stepping near her to greet Hanaka, but the little girl was too shy and hide in Kara's neck.

"Listen." Began Tsunade seriously "We have received a message from Suna asking for our help to rescue one of their academic students who have been kidnapped by four men called the four blessed men or something. I agreed. Shikamaru will be the team's captain for this mission."

She let Shikamaru speak, who sighed tiredly before explaining.

"Gaara and his team had already been sent. Our mission is to support them. I summoned all of you here because of your special abilities. Kara, Sakura, I want you two to form a medical unit. You will travel a bit behind us and be ready to take any order but do not take any unnecessary risk."

The two girls nodded and Shikamaru turned to the rest.

"Shino will team up with Sasuke." He told them "And Neji will be with Hinata. I want you four to search for those four men. You will travel ahead of us and notify to me any suspect sighting."

The four nodded and Shikamaru dismissed them, telling them to go to their designed spot.

Kara told Sakura to wait for a few minutes and walked to Shizune.

"Shizune-sempai." She asked "Can you watch Hanaka for me? I was summoned on such short notice that I didn't have time to find any babysitter. Don't worry at the beginning she will cry but in the end she's really sweet."

She didn't wait for an answer, kissed Hanaka on the cheek and disappeared with Sakura.

::::

"I'm totally bored." Muttered Sakura, a hand on her cheek.

"Don't worry." Reassured Kara "With boys like Sasuke, Naruto or Kiba, it won't be long before someone is injured. A lot of our teamates tend to rush recklessly into battle."

"I suppose you're right." Smiled Sakura "I just wish my team was here too, but they were sent on a mission while I was busy with my medical training."

"About that." Said Kara curiously "Is it true that Tsunade accepted to take you as an apprentice?"

"Hai." Smiled Sakura "Though I still question why."

"Hey, don't underestimate yourself." Replied Kara "I saw you. You definitely have a knack for medical ninjutsu. I'm sure one day you'll be on par with Hokage-sama."

"You think so?" pouted doubtfully Sakura "I'm nothing like anyone in this group. I'm not from a promiscuous clan. I have no natural talent anywhere."

"Don't lower yourself like that!" protested Kara "You perhaps do not come from a prestigious clan but that doesn't mean you can't become a good ninja. I don't want another Neji talking about fate, one is enough."

That did the trick and the two girls giggled together.

They were interrupted by Shino's bees which informed them that Gaara was injured.

"I'll go." Proposed Kara "You'll take the next one."

Sakura nodded and followed Kara's form until she couldn't see it anymore.

::::

Kara entered the Hyuuga compound, running madly through the houses.

Hanaka giggled happily on her back, clapping her hands together in glee.

She finally found what she was looking for.

"Hinata-chan!" the brown haired girl called.

Surprised pupiless eyes looked at her friend interrupting her training session with Neji (their relationship improved greatly after Naruto knocked some sense into the boy).

"Quick!" said Kara, not letting Hinata say something "Sorry Neji-san but I have to borrow Hinata for some moments."

The green eyed girl didn't even wait for the boy's nod of approval and began running again, bringing forcibly Hinata with her.

"Kara-chan?" asked Hinata between two pants when they finally stopped near Konoha gates.

"Naruto is going away today for at least two years." Explained Kara, having regained her breath "You will not see him for a long time and I think this is the best moment to tell him your feelings."

A that announcement Hinata reddened almost instantly.

"I-I c-can't." she stuttered, afraid.

"Hinata-chan." Said Kara very seriously "If you don't tell him now what you feel for him, who knows what'll happen during his travel. You have to empty your mind so that he at least knows."

She saw that Hinata was hesitant, but she hoped she would make the right choice.

Naruto appeared with Jiraya and Kara ran to hug him.

"Be careful." She said in the embrace "And come back to us in one piece."

"Don't worry." Replied the blond boy, hugging her back.

"And try to not eat only ramen would you?" she smirked, finishing on a happier note.

Embarrassed, Naruto chuckled slightly and scratched the back of his head before Kara decided to get Hanaka out of her back.

"Here." She said to the little girl, putting her in the blond's arms "Say goodbye to Naruto."

While Naruto was googying with the little girl that Kara turned briefly to Hinata.

"I know you can do it." She said, taking the shy girl's hands in hers "You're strong."

She smiled reassuringly before returning to Naruto.

"Hinata wants to say goodbye too." She said quickly before insisting on her last words "Please Naruto-kun, listen to her."

She took Hanaka back in her arms and sent Jiraya an insisting and pleading look before pushing him away.

The old man raised an eyebrow but thankfully let himself get lead away.

They stopped behind the corner of a street and Kara peaked to see Hinata blushing and twiddling with her fingers.

"What's happening kid?" whispered Jiraya, bending to her level.

Kara frowned and only put a finger on her mouth, telling him to shut up. It wasn't any of his business.

The girl strained to hear what Hinata was saying.

"…a-an-and I-I l-lik-like y-you a-a l-lo-lot N-Nar-Narut-Naruto." Finished stuttering the tomato faced girl.

'Oh my god.' Groaned Kara 'I hope Naruto's understood this.

The blond boy stayed for a moment uncertain but quickly smiled.

"Yeah I like you too Hinata-chan!" he exclaimed "You're really a good friend."

Kara felt like slapping her forehead before hitting the dumb blond. As a matter of fact, she heard Jiraya slap his own.

Hinata down, tears gathering at the corner of her eyes. She griped tightly her hands.

'Poor Hinata-chan.' though sadly Kara

She was preparing to intervene when Hinata did something the brown haired girl though she would never do.

She neared boldly the dumb blond haired boy, exhaled sharply before tip toeing to his level and pressed lightly her lips on his.

She whispered something Kara couldn't decipher before bolting away.

It took a few long seconds for Kara to leave her stupefied trance and to near the blinking boy, leaving a mouth hanging Jiraya behind.

"K-Kara-chan." Stuttered Naruto "Sh-She…"

"She had a crush on you for the longest time you know." Said calmly Kara, trying to contain the giggle bubbling in her throat "But she couldn't really tell you because she was extremely shy and that she was a main branch Hyuuga. Admitting her love for you would have created a scandal."

The girl smiled before continuing:

"I hope you know you'll have to give her an answer when you come back?"

Naruto made a rare serious face, not answering.

"Fortunately for you you have two years and a half to think about that." Kara sighed "Just remember this. Hinata, unlike Sakura, was able to see you for who you are. An amazing boy who is able to surpass every obstacle. And she's working very hard to reach your level to be on par with you later. She wants to be your equal, stands by your side."

The rest of the goodbyes was a quiet affair.

Kara threatened Jiraya to take care of Naruto, make Naruto promise to write letters to her and Hanaka and watched them until she couldn't see them anymore.

'This is going to be a long waiting.' She thought, hugging Hanaka to her.

**Petitefeeme: I hope you liked, unfortunately I want to finish another second part of my other story before this one so you'll have to wait a bit, but promise I'll warn you.**

**Kara: And the author decided to open a vote.**

**Petitefeeme: Exactly! I have everyone or almost paired up with someone, but I don't know who Ino will be with.**

**Kara: So we decided to let the readers choose!**

**Petitefeeme: Here are the pairing!**

**Ino x Choji**

**Ino x Kiba**

**Ino x Oc (he would be another Kokoro. If you choose this one you can send me a profile if you want)**

**Ino (whining): Why can't I be with Sasuke!**

**Petitefeeme (smirking): Because he's reserved for someone else**

**Ino: WHO! TELL ME SO THAT I CAN KILL HER!**

**Petitefeeme: NEVER! (takes the pairing sheets and run).**

**Kara:...okaaayy, until next part everyone! And don't forget to review or Ino will be left alone and grow old surrounded by cats.**


	16. Author note

Dear readers,

GOOD NEWS ! I finally finished the second part of this story ^_^

The title will be: The Kokoro clan: Shippuden. I know it isn't really original but I have no talent finding good titles. I someone has a better suggestion then don't hesitate to let me now through a review.

I'll publish the first chapter of The Kokoro clan: Shippuden this Friday! So until then!

Have a good week!

Petitefeeme


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